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GUIDE TO HEALTH 



DESIGNED FOR 



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CONTAINING 



A SHOET AND CONCISE MODE OF TBEATMENT FOE MOST FOEM3 OF 

DISEASE TO WHICH MAN IS LIABLE, WITH 

SANATIVE AGENTS. 



TOGETHER WITH 



THOSE TO WHICH WOMEN AND CHILDREN ARE PECULIARLY LIABLE 



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By JAMES J. DAVIS, M.D., 



STATE OF GEORGIA, TEBRELL COUNTY. 








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new york: 


AKLEY AND MASON 


21 


MURRAY STREET. 




1868. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress in year 1868, 
Bt JAMES J. DAVIS, M.D., 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
District of Georgia. 



PREFACE. 

This treatise is designed specially for families and 
such as eannot conveniently have the advice and aid of 
a skillful and faithful physician, to advise and direct 
upon the very important subject of avoiding disease and 
promoting health. The author has witnessed, with sor- 
row and regret, for a length of time, the great vacuum 
and want of a more extended knowledge upon this 
subject, the one thing needful more than all other earthly 
topics ; and he has been astonished, while reflecting upon 
this matter, why it is, in this enlightened age, and espe- 
cially in this free and republican nation where there is 
every inducement to learning, and where the means to 
acquire knowledge are so abundant, that the people, taken 
in mass, have fallen into such a state of apathy and care- 
lessness upon the subject of health, (in which every man, 
woman and child is interested,) while almost every other 
topic in which individuals are severally concerned, is dili- 
gently sought into ; and yet without health none can be 
enjoyed ; and in looking for the cause of this state of 
things, he has been led to view it as the effect of the 
galling chain fastened upon the necks of our forefathers, 
during the dark and superstitious ages, when medicine 
was taught and believed to be a secret, a gift from the 
gods (their idols) to a favored few ; and that the people 



4 PREFACE. 

have not been entirely freed from this bias under the 
present teachings; for although the teachings of this age 
do not hold medicine and the healing art to be a secret 
gift, of the various supposed powers, to a favored few, 
yet it is not taught as a gift from God, a common right to 
all, bestowed by a wise Creator from the foundation of 
the world, of which even the beasts seem to possess 
some imperfect knowledge by instinct ; and until medi- 
cine is taught and understood correctly, this bias will 
perhaps be upon the people ; howsoever deplorable and 
inconsistent this state of things may appear, yet the fact 
proves that thousands are yielding their most delicate 
secrets, and vital temporal interests to the care of un- 
interested persons, only as they arc made interested 
through their profession — and until there is a willingness 
manifested by professional men to free the minds of the 
people from every improper bias, and to remove every 
cause of darkness or misunderstanding, doubts may arise 
whether they are worthy to receive such high trust ; a 
man ought to love his neighbor as himself, yea more than 
his money. 

It is truly pleasing to every philanthropic mind to see 
the many laudable efforts manifested by feeling and sym- 
pathizing doctors to give the people light upon the sub- 
ject of medicine and the healing .art, yet we have to de- 
plore their want of success ; but no one should falter 
oecause the desired object has not been accomplished at 
once. Let the cause of the failure be looked into, and re- 
newed energies displayed. Let medicine be viewed as a 
gift from God, perfect in its nature, never to be a poison. 

The paradox and incongruity of calling a medicine a 
poison, and recognising a virulent poison as a medicine, 



must always engender darkness rather than light. Free it 
of these inconsistencies and strip it of technicalities, and 
light will spring up to the people. Witness the dilemma 
that (that eccentric but yet somewhat quaint writer) 
Dr. G-unn has thrown his readers into. See pages 12, 
407 and 564-5, and other parts, " Domestic Medicine," 7th 
edition. Hear a caution from a writer on the soil of 
the South, July No. 1859, page 229. 

The last writer tells his readers, by way of caution , 
" The negro has less vital reaction than the white man, 
and cannot bear active treatment so well ;" and further, 
he says, " Excessive physicking is a common error in do- 
mestic practice both among whites and negroes, and 
thousands are thus hurried to their graves annually." 
No doubt the advice is given in candor and honesty, 
(for he says he is preparing a domestic work,) but I ask, 
is it enlightening and encouraging ? or is it bewildering 
and discouraging? Does it not imply that medicine is 
an uncertain and a dangerous thing ? Doubtless he has 
a view of poisons when he speaks as he does, and 
poisons and sanative medicines ought not to be blended 
together in a family work, designed to enlighten and 
benefit. Simple truth seems to be this : if you wish the 
people to be enlightened upon this subject, teach them in 
plain, unmystified terms what medicine is, and how to 
use it, and teach them what poison is and how to avoid 
it ; but if you wish them to use a poison, tell them it is 
a poison, and of what degree of virulence, and give the 
reason why you think they should use it. If you wish 
them to use a poison and a medicine, teach them how 
you combine them and why you do it. The people would 
then have all the light you could afford, they could judge 



6 PREFACE. 

for themselves and their minds be at ease ; but if the 
profession loves the pre-eminence and longs for the loaves 
and fishes, let them call poisons medicines ; cloak their 
names in technical terms unknown to the people ; let them 
use poisons for medicines, and combine poisons and med- 
icines together. Tell the people there is danger, let them 
see the danger and feel the danger, and you will in all 
probability have the honor of prescribing for the sick. 
But how many desire honor at so great a sacrifice of the 
people ? For charity's sake, I hope the larger portion 
of the honorable profession of doctors would scorn to 
have undue pre-eminence. 

The author, believing, as he does, that God, who pos- 
sesses all wisdom, and whose power is unlimited, and 
whose work is before Him, and who saw the end from 
the beginning, who is plenteous in mercy and slow to 
anger, and who has given laws to govern man in his 
physical station as well as in his moral conduct, the vio- 
lation of which brings pain, disease, and ultimately, death ; 
believing that He has also given him means to allevi- 
ate his pains and avoid disease to a limited extent, and 
has also endowed man with reason and a retentive me- 
mory to improve upon these means by experience, will 
therefore adhere strictly to the above prescribed course, 
according to the best of his understanding, in presenting 
to the world a book for a family reference and guide ; 
trusting that his readers will allow him to claim an honor- 
able zeal in trying to do good, to relieve the distresses 
of the distressed, and to save a useless expense, perhaps 
of many millions, in the bounds of these United States. 
Give the people the light upon this subject, which I can- 
not conceive but what they are entitled to, and how 



PREFACE. 7 

much of this enormous expense might be saved ? and how 
many long and lingering cases of disease might be avoid- 
ed, to say nothing of untimely deaths as they are called ? 
and the physician occupy a more elevated station, and a 
quiet conscience to go to sleep upon. 

The object of the author in the plan of this work, has 
been to combine brevity and force with simplicity and 
clearness ; prolixity and too much niceuess is doubtless 
objectionable in a work of the character of this, both as 
enhancing the price of the work, and encumbering the 
minds of many readers ; but he is aware that in too 
strenuously avoiding this error, he may commit another, 
i.e., fail to give that light and force which a work 
of this kind necessarily demands. But if the work shall 
find favor with his friends and fellow-sufferers, and shall 
aid in any degree to mitigate their sufferings, and a 
second edition be called for, if the Lord permit he will 
rectify what is found defective in this. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

Man, the excellent creature of God, made in his own 
image, possessing reason and endowed with knowledge, 
and ruling over all things upon earth, yet finds himself 
in darkness as to his origin and destiny, which reason 
alone cannot dispel; and much of that with which he has 
to do in time, is a dark future and an uncertain now ; 
and every effort made to dispel it without the light of 
Revelation, tends but to engulf him further and further 
in this labyrinth of irrecoverable ignorance. But God, 
who has created and preserves man, is rich in mercy, 
therefore He has given to the sons of men, Adam's pos- 
terity, the Book of Revelation called the Bible. In this 
book light is afforded which becomes a soothing resting 
place for the weary, faltering mind of man, that is worn 
out by fatigue in seeking whereon to rest; but like 
Noah's dove, finding none elsewhere, it can find it only 
in this ark. And not only is the Bible a resting-place 
for the mind of man while searching for information as 
to his being and destiny, but it is a starting point for 
science and philosophy ; and all theories which do not 
have this as a basis, whether medicine, law, or any 
other science, may be set down as imperfect ; for it will 
be liable to be overturned, amended or superseded. This 
has been and must ever be the result of all speculations. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 9 

Science proper is but a correct knowledge of the 
laws which God has given to govern all created matter ; 
and as God is perfect his laws are perfect also, for an 
imperfect law cannot proceed from a perfect law-giver ; 
and as man is imperfect by rebellion and sin he cannot 
understand perfection. Therefore, as God's laws are per- 
fect, man can have a perfect understanding of them 
only as they are revealed to him from God, who only is 
perfect. And as God has given the Bible to the fallen 
sons of Adam, by revelation, it is a correct and only 
source of proper information ; therefore it must be the 
basis of all correct science. 

Man is under obligations to praise God, and ought to 
praise Him for his goodness and wonderful works to the 
children of men. It may, however, be argued by some 
that most of the science extant is the result of reason, 
without the light of Scripture. To which I will answer 
that every science that has proved correct and continuous, 
has, as a basis, the principle of unchangeabilily, which 
principle is founded alone in God, as the Bible declares ; 
as He is unchangeable so are his laws unchangeable also. 
Hence correct science must have harmony between cause 
and effect. Some systems may have the rays of light 
of the Scripture intertwined with reason, and for a time 
may, like polished metal, show very bright ; but as rea- 
son is intertwined, it acts like salt to metal, it corrodes 
and eats like rust. When reason intercepts the rays of 
light of Revelation, the beauty of the system sinks and 
dies away, and is lost or superseded. God lias nowhere 
authorized man to look for a cause, but in Him, of any- 
thing that is good or correct, nor for an end without 
Him. The Book of God contains all the authority given to 
1* 



10 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

man to seek information, either as to his peace and hap- 
piness in time or his state hereafter ; that is, in seeking 
for this information, we must not come in contact with the 
Scriptures. Reason is good and refreshing while it ac- 
cords with Scripture, but in contact with the Scripture, 
or in other words without the light of Scripture, it is 
like a whirlwind or a burning volcano, it turns in every 
direction, and sends forth destruction wherever it goes. 
In the Scriptures we learn that man was made upright 
and very good — he was happy, he knew no pain, and no 
sentence of death was over hiin : the products of the 
earth and all the living creatures on it, were placed un- 
der his coutrol ; all was given to him for his use, and all 
tended to promote his happiness. Of one tree only was 
he forbidden to eat ; he was informed by his Maker that 
eating of that tree he should die ; his state would be 
changed ; instead of happiness, torment was to be his 
state : sin, whose wages was death, was to be over him, 
with all its consequent effects — pain, disease, and death. 
But the woman, man's helpmate, his wife, was persuaded 
by the serpent that what God had said was not true, 
they would not die, but instead of death he persuaded 
her that they would become wise, and become as gods ; con- 
sequently she was deceived and partook of the forbidden 
tree, and did eat, and she gave to her husband also, and 
he not being deceived, yet partook and did eat, and 
thereby brought sin upon himself, and entailed it upon 
his posterity, with all its consequent evils. The earth 
was cursed for man's sake. It was to bring forth that 
which was to annoy him, and accelerate his pain and 
death, for the irrevocable decree falls on him, " From dust 
thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 11 

In this rebellious and sinful state man seems to be, as 
it were, surrounded with influences of death and in- 
fluences of temporal life ; one serving to sustain and 
support animal life, the other tending to dissolution 
or the destruction of that life. The breath of life is 
yet in man, and the right to have dominion over beasts 
of the field and fishes of the sea and fowls of the air, 
as well as the right to have the fruit of the tree and 
the herbs of the field for food, yet continues (except 
the tree of life). These all serve to support and main- 
tain animal life or temporal existence ; whilst the curse 
of the earth and the sentence of death unite and send 
forth influences which tend to destroy animal life and 
temporal existence. These influences are termed laws of 
nature, because they are given by the Author of life, the 
Creator of all things. They are regular in their opera- 
tions and unchangeable in their effects. If a man puts 
his hand in the fire, the regular and constant effect is 
that the corrosive or burning influence of the fire will 
overcome the vital principle and destroy life. So if he 
was to confine it in ice the effects would be equally 
regular and fatal, but the operation different. The laws 
tending to the support of animal life can only predomi- 
nate a limited time, but during that time man has a right 
to try to sustain those laws, and it is his duty to do so ; for 
a gracious God, through the merits of his Son, has grant- 
ed this favor, and also placed in man an instinctive love 
of life and dread of death. The Scriptures inform us 
that as by the offence of one (man) judgment came upon 
all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness 
of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification 
of life. Therefore no man can be excusable who care- 



12 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

lessly neglects to seek to understand the laws that sup- 
port life, or that does not try to sustain thein us far as 
in his power lies, and to be equally careful to avoid the 
influence of those that produce death. Man should not 
be presumptuous nor slothful ; his allotted time seems 
to be a kind of a probationary state. The forces or 
laws of nature, which tend to the support of natural 
life require air, food, water, light, and heat, together 
with exercise and rest. The first of these were granted 
to man in his primeval condition, the two latter mostly 
after his fall. When a proper combination of these in- 
fluences arc present and properly exercised, they resist for 
a time the ordinary influence which seeks the destruction 
of animal life, or the dissolution of the body. This 
state is termed health, which is, correctly speaking, a 
blessing. Physically speaking, it is a forced state, that 
is, it has no inherent principle by which it can maintain 
itself without the aid of other forces. The forces, whose 
end is the dissolution of the animal body or the destruc- 
tion of natural life, may be grouped together as follows : 
corrupted passions, as fear, dread, anger, jealousy, etc. ; 
excessive heat, cold, etc. ; mechanical influences, as 
wounds, bruises, etc. ; and lastly, poison both aerial, 
mineral, animal and vegetable. These influences, sepa- 
rately or combined, when they predominate over those 
of health, produce pain, disease, and ultimately, death. 
Disease, then, is chastisement inflicted, because of a 
violated law or laws. Physically it is a weakened state 
of animal power, an enervation of the nervous system. 
The author, believing, as he does, that it is the duty of 
men to support or sustain the first system of laws, as far 
as the means are placed within their power, and to avoid 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 13 

the influence of the latter set of laws to the same extent, 
will notice each separately, and as concisely as his ability 
and circumstances will allow. 

Air — is a fluid filling- all space round the earth to an 
indefinite height. It is that by which the breath of life is 
supported, and without which it would instantly cease. 
When pure, or unimpregnated witli any aerial poison, it 
is called healthy air or atmosphere, because it contains 
properties necessary for health, some of which are taken 
into the system • others have affinities for deleterious 
matters in the system, and take them from it. But the 
air is liable to take up a poisonous gas or matter called 
miasm or malaria (and specific poisons, as small-pox, 
etc). This miasmatic poison is produced from decaying 
and decayed animal and vegetable matter, which decay 
requires a certain degree of heat and moisture ; but when 
it takes place, the particles of decayed matter become 
gaseous, rise and float in the air ; and in proportion to 
the quantity and quality of matter to undergo decay, and 
the rapidity or tardiness witli which that decay takes 
place, so the place, section, or country, is considered 
healthy or unhealthy. This is the general law, but it is 
modified by other circumstances, such as the tendency of 
the air to purify itself; and in passing through a thick 
woodland country, with luxuriant vegetable growth, 
many of the poisonous particles are intercepted, taken 
up, and converted into the support of vegetation. 

Locality. — The author therefore holds it as a point 
of first importance to consider well the location selected 
for a residence, both as it regards the woodlands and 
the ease and rapidity for the flow of water from it ; and 
he is furthermore led to believe, from observation and 
other sources of information, that in all hot, flat and for- 



14 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

tile sections of country, that an unbroken forest, situated 
to the east and south of the residence, to any extent that 
may be convenient, "will have a salutary influence ; and 
upon this principle let all manure lots be placed, as far 
as convenience and circumstances will allow, to the north 
or north-west ; let the effluvia be kept from the dwellings 
as much as possible. It is the exhilarating or vivifying 
particles of manure to vegetables that are the most poi- 
sonous to man, and they are generally the most volatile. 
Therefore, any means that will prevent the escape of 
these rich particles of manure will aid to keep the at- 
mosphere pure. Let the manure be removed as soon as 
the circumstances will allow ; let all filth be kept from 
the dwelling if possible. By observing these rules, we 
aid as much as in us is to keep the surrounding atmos- 
phere pure. 

But there is another circumstance worthy to be ob- 
served, that is, the miasm generated in the house, which, 
when confined long, is very pernicious. This is produced 
from the worn-out particles of the system thrown off in 
sweat, through the breath, etc., etc. To destroy this 
miasm, let the house be ventilated with fresh air ; a brisk 
(lightwood) fire night and morning, kindled in the fire- 
place, but not kept high enough and long enough to heat 
the room, in warm weather, will aid to destroy this gas. 
Washing the clothes, sunning the beds, and ablutions to 
the house, etc., are the means mostly to be relied on. It 
is obvious man has but a very limited power in purifying 
the air, or in keeping it pure, yet he is as much bound 
to observe and carry out the means he has, as though 
the whole was under his control. His power is limited, 
his means are local ; but he that prevents a local disease 
may sometimes prevent an epidemical attack ; because a 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 15 

local affection often leaves the system more liable to such 
an attack. 

Food. — Food is any substance which when taken into 
the stomach and digested, evolves heat and life. Food 
for man consists of animal and vegetable substances ; 
and when properly prepared it enters the stomach and 
comes in connection with another substance called the 
gastric juice ; it then undergoes a radical change, and is 
transformed into a liquid called chyme, from thence it 
passes on and receives other juices from the liver, pancreas, 
etc., by which another change takes place, and it is called 
chyle ; it is then taken up in other smaller vessels, and 
passes from one to another, changing, as it goes, from 
blood to muscles, bones, fat, etc., etc., and as it undergoes 
these changes, heat and energy is imparted to the whole 
system ; so man seems in some sense to be working him- 
self over anew every time he eats. In health, food is 
comparable to fuel in the fire ; fire will not burn with- 
out air, neither can the changes in food go on to be con- 
summated without air through the lungs, pores of the 
skin, etc. In following the laws of nature with regard 
to food, in selecting the kind, quantity and quality of the 
great variety of animal and vegetable substances — each 
of which possesses some peculiar property necessary for 
the full development of the powers of the animal econ- 
omy — the appetite is given as an instinctive guide, and 
although it is a general guide as to what is required for 
the support of the system, yet it is not always a correct 
one, for in disease it often becomes morbid, and in health 
it is liable to be influenced by the sight and the remem- 
brance of what was palatable ; and thereby leads to eat- 



16 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

ing too much in one instance, and to articles of food not 
proper in the other. Therefore reason must be connected 
with the appetite to form a correct guide. Where the 
appetite is not morbid or otherwise improperly influ- 
enced, it may be considered in general correct to satisfy 
the appetite. 

The best way to prove a morbid appetite is to eat 
very slowly and stop occasionally ; if the appetite is mor- 
bid or unhealthy, it will soon begin to refuse that which 
it seemed to desire at first ; if healthy, it will increase, 
though you eat slowly, until nature is satisfied. In pal- 
atable articles of food, reason and experience must be 
the main guide. It is of as much importance to observe 
the quantity of food to be received into the stomach as 
the quality. The appetite is often equal to this task, 
when healthy and uninfluenced ; yet it is liable to 
misguide from three causes : first, by seeing articles 
of food that are palatable, after the stomach has been 
satiated with other articles of food ; secondly, by eating 
too hastily, and thereby crowding the stomach before 
the natural powers can deliberate and determine what is 
a sufficient quantity ; and thirdly, by custom in indulg- 
ing the appetite and forcing the stomach to excessive 
distention too often, thereby weakening its nervous in- 
fluence and augmenting and perverting the proper secre- 
tions of the gastric juice. Reason and experience there- 
fore unite upon this point : eat slowly, masticate (or 
chew) the food properly, and never indulge the palate to 
a second or third dish after the stomach is sufficiently 
distended, or the first impulse of the appetite satisfied. 
By strictly observing these rules you may cut off a long 
list of diseases which otherwise you may have to suffer. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 17 

Healthy persons who exercise can bear strong food, and 
they require it ; but weakly or unhealthy persons must 
have light nourishing diet. 

Drink. — It might be sufficient here simply to remark 
that good spring and well water is as pure as we can 
make it, when the spring or well is kept in a good con- 
dition, and is sufficient for the ordinary demands of the 
system. But as there are other liquids which are in use, 
and which are spoken of as drinks, I shall therefore ad- 
vert briefly to them ; but before I speak of them it will 
be prudent, perhaps, to make this distinction : that all 
other drinks are taken with a design to accomplish some 
other end, or for some other purpose, than that of water. 

Water is the great purifier of the system. Scrip turally, 
under the Mosaical dispensation, it is represented as a 
purifier, and by it purifications were made religiously by 
the Jews as a nation. In the Gospel it is spoken of 
typically of the Spirit of God, which purifies the soul. 
Literally, it purifies the system, when used either exter- 
nally or internally. When used externally, it cleanses 
the surface of all morbific excretions, which are thrown 
out through the pores of the skin, and thereby aids to 
keep the sweat glands in a healthy condition ; and when 
taken internally it enters the blood-vessels, unites with 
the blood, and aids very powerfully to separate and 
throw out the worn-down particles of the system and 
other impurities to the surface — in phlegm, in the urine, 
and in the sweat glands, etc. This is so easily demon- 
strated that no one need, and hardly will, doubt it who 
has observed its effects upon a laboring man. See a man 
in the harvest-field when the weather is hot, observe him 



IQ PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

cutting- grain with a scythe for a half hour, see him stop 
— lie is heated, wearied, restless and thirsty, but he 
takes a full draught of water. The water passes from 
the stomach into the blood-vessels, it cools and purifies 
the blood ; the worn-down particles of the system, which 
have rapidly collected in the blood from exercise and 
heat, are by the aid of the water thrown to the surface 
in the character of sweat ; in a few minutes he feels re- 
freshed, gathers his scythe again, and returns to his 
work ; and repeats the same course hours, days and 
weeks, and does not get sick, and without water he 
would sink in half a day or less. 

The danger to be apprehended from the internal use 
of water, if pure, is drinking too much, or its being too 
cool, more especially if the system be over-heated. That 
of an external application is its radiating, or taking oft* 
too much caloric, or animal heat, thereby closing the 
pores and forcing back upon the internal organs that 
which should have been thrown off by the external. 
This is known to be the case by the skin becoming 
rough or pimpled, blueness of the skin under the nails, 
shivering, etc. ; and is often followed by some disease, 
as cramp, rheumatism, pneumonia, etc. 

When any person, from the use of water, either exter- 
nally or internally applied, feels that the powers of the 
system have been made to sink, let him immediately take 
some stimulant, such as pepper, ginger, sweating teas, 
or good spirits, all taken warm, in order to rouse a nor- 
mal or healthy action. The same may be applicable 
from any other sudden oppression from cold. 

Drinks termed spirituous drinks, as brandies, wines, 
etc., have had their uses often perverted, and their 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 19 

abuses have been more frequently manifest than their 
uses ; yet they have their uses, both as a preventive of 
disease and as a remedy, and especially as a menstruum in 
which other medicines are prepared. In many cases re- 
quiring stimulants, good spirits, properly used, are bene- 
ficial ; hence the inspired writer says : " Give strong 
drink to him that is ready to perish, and give wine to 
the weak or faint." This is given by inspiration and is 
correct ; and every practical physiologist must have 
witnessed the same. But it is not its use we seek to set 
forth as much as its abuse. Man should remember that 
it is his duty not to violate any, but to observe every 
law given him from above. Then whether we eat or 
drink, it should be done for our good and the glory of 
God. But alas ! how many in this particular seem not 
to know any law or rule whatever. 

They drink when they are hot, 
They drink when they are cold, 
They drink when they are young, 
They drink when they are old, 
They drink when they are mad, 
They drink when they are pleased, 
They drink when they are sad, 
And they drink when at their ease. 

Doubtless of all the laws of nature requiring aid for 
the system, none have been more improperly fulfilled than 
those laws which require stimulants, especially when 
sought to be answered by the use of ardent spirits alone. 
Spirituous liquors have their appropriate uses, yet none 
neem so well calculated to take advantage of man's weak- 
ness ; they first pervert judgment, when taken to excess, 
and then open the floodgates, so to speak, to innumer- 



20 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

able extravagances, vices and diseases ; and the passion 
pervades all classes alike, from the king to the beggar. 
No one, then, ought to indulge in the use of ardent spir- 
its, or wines, so as to disturb the equilibrium of that 
noble faculty of man termed reason. Let none use it as 
a daily beverage, or medicine, but such as have an actual 
need for it. The young, the strong and the healthy 
ought not to use stimulants of this character, only occa- 
sionally, or on emergencies, under sudden depressions. 
Neither let the feeble use it, so as for the habit to require 
it, as much as nature ; let other stimulants be used, such 
as pepper, mustard, ginger, etc. Tonics act well in lieu 
of stimulants with many that are feeble, as barks, tansy, 
iron, etc. — taken in tincture, tea, and in substance. Other 
drinks, as tea, coffee, milk, etc., are liable to abuses, but 
not to the same extent as that above mentioned ; yet 
moderation ought to be observed in the use of these also. 

Exercise. — To explain fully the modus operandi, or 
in other words, the manner in which exercise tends to 
health, so as for all to understand its benefits correctly, 
will require brevity and force rather than length, and 
this is more especially the object in this essay. Therefore, 
as a law of nature, it is especially enjoined on the pos- 
terity of Adam by the Author and Judge of all natural 
laws. It was said to him, (and runs to his posterity,) 
" In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread until 
thou return unto the ground." This is a law of nature, 
though inflicted for his disobedience. The system is so 
organized that through the pores of the skin much of the 
impurities are carried out and thrown off in sweat, and 
this is augmented by exercise ; by it the muscles are 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 21 

caused to contract and expand alternately upon the 
blood-vessels and other organs, so that the blood is forced 
through these vessels with more speed, perhaps, than 
it otherwise would do. There is also a set of vessels 
termed capillaries, which are formed between the arte- 
ries and veins, which are so very small that without this 
relaxing and contracting power, they would not be able 
to perform their offices properly ; but by this contract- 
ing and expanding force, these vessels are competent to 
the task, and able to do so great a work, (unless over- 
powered by impurities and their nervous influence weak- 
ened,) distributing part of their contents, the refuse or 
worn-down particles, to the surface, and another part to 
the support of the system, which is the most vital part 
of the blood, and part taken back into the circulation. 
Thus exercise performs a very prominent part in keeping 
the system in a healthy condition. 

Exercise may be classed under two heads, general and 
local, or voluntary and involuntary. General exercise 
is such as laboring, walking, leaping, riding, etc. Local 
exercise is such as breathing, digestion, circulation, etc. 
The latter is often augmented by the former. In breath- 
ing, or inspiration, the lungs are filled and press the dia- 
phragm upon the stomach, liver, bowels, etc., thereby 
aiding and stimulating these vessels to perform their 
functions properly. Besides this there is the exercise 
of the mind, which has a very controlling influence over 
both the muscular and circulatory exercises. If the 
mind is cheerful and buoyant, the motion is quick and 
easy ; but if the mind is depressed, the action is dull 
and languid, and the influence does not stop at muscular 
depression, but extends also to digestion, the circulation 



22 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

and the nervous system. Therefore the mind should be 
cultivated, or trained, so as to cause as much as its in- 
fluence will allow a proper muscular action on the one 
part, and to prevent an excess of depression on the other. 
I have witnessed cases where slight depressing causes 
existed, and the mind not being trained so as to resist 
their influence, it became depressed, despondency pre- 
vailed, muscular action became heavy, the digestive 
powers were weakened, circulation was languid, and dis- 
ease followed, and the system made to sink. 

One case I will mention : A lady, whom I was called 
to see, had been confined to her bed for a long time ; she 
said she had the skill of all the doctors she could get, 
and had paid them over $500, and was no bettor. They 
left her under the belief that they did not understand 
her condition, as they had told her that her disease was 
hysterics. I did not tell her immediately that the des- 
pondency of the mind was bearing her down, but tried 
to encourage her by telling her 1 would doctor her if 
she would take my medicine properly, nor charge her 
anything for my services if I did not get her up. (She 
was to pay for the medicine.) I supposed 1 could rouse 
a cheerful or buoyant feeling, and by that means raise 
her from her bed, especially as 1 expected frosty morn- 
ings by the time 1 could get the system thoroughly pre- 
pared ; but after having treated her case for two or 
three months, and the expected frosty mornings having 
come, and no improvement being manifest, except in the 
gain of eight or ten pounds of flesh, I told her I should 
cease giving her any more medicine, but would give her 
some advice worth more to her than all the medicine she 
had taken. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 23 

The advice was to rise the next morning, wash her 
face and hands, and be sure not to take her bed until 
after breakfast ; repeat the same the next morning, and 
wash up to her wrists ; and after a few days' continuance 
in this course, when the mornings were fair, to walk the 
yard, and soon after to walk to the end of the lane ; and 
after she had done this for four or five mornings, to take 
two rocks, (as there were plenty convenient,) one in each 
hand, and to walk to the end of the lane, swinging her 
hands back and forth. To this last remark, she cried 
out, and said it would kill her. I told her I appre- 
hended no danger, but if she did get down I would come 
and administer to her for nothing, it should not cost her 
a cent. I left her, supposing she would hardly make the 
first attempt ; but to my astonishment, after several 
weeks elapsed, I heard she had followed my advice, and 
was almost or quite well, and I suppose has remained 
enjoying at least a reasonable portion of health to this 
day ; at any rate she did for several years. 

The good eifect of training the mind to resist slight 
causes of oppression, and prevent despondency, is mani- 
fest to every observing physician and spectator, as well 
as the sad consequences of the reverse. Therefore I can- 
not urge with too great earnestness the propriety of such 
exercise or training of the mind. Regular and moderate 
eating and drinking, temperate and regular exercise, and 
a tranquil mind, are the main pillars of good health, 
and, as far as human power has anv control, to longevity 
of life. 

I was acquainted with a gentleman in Henry County, 
in this State, who died at about ninety-five or ninety-six 
years of age. At about fifty-five or sixty years of age I first 



2-i PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

became acquainted with him ; he was then a valetudinarian, 
as it is called. He was a very infirm man, but by observing 
the above rules, and by a prudent course of medication, 
he became a healthy old man, able to ride or walk any 
where in the circle of his business, and attended to it with 
comparative ease and facility. 

All persons in good health and vigor of life ought to 
take from eight to twelve hours regular but moderate 
exercise daily, the remainder of the time not necessary 
for sleep ought to be employed either in conversation, 
learning, or rest, other than sleep. Sickly or weakly 
persons require more rest, less vigorous exercise, and in 
some cases more sleep. Old persons less exercise, but 
not generally more sleep ; they need tranquillity of mind ; 
when the minds of old persons are disturbed, they are 
frequently deprived of a due portion of sleep, but some- 
times they indulge or rather sink into too much sleep, 
which frequently proves pernicious, if not fatal. 

Early rising is always beneficial to those who are able 
to rise ; that is, to rise at the opening of day, or at least 
with the rising of the sun. Exercise in the open air 
(when pure) is best for the healthy and strong, but to the 
less vigorous, exercise within doors, until the dampness 
of the air is dispersed, is prudent. From thirty to sixty 
minutes after rising, breakfast should be taken. 

Early eating is very beneficial for children. To the 
healthy and strong laboring man it is almost useless to 
attempt to point out what course of exercise is right 
and prudent for him, for his calling and duty point out 
that course ; but to others, we say, walking is the best 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 25 

exercise. Riding on horseback is a good and healthy 
exercise, and perhaps the best for some peculiar cases ; 
riding in a carriage is good for those of less strength 
and vigor. Over exercise is injurious. By exercise the 
circulation is quickened, the nervous system is roused, 
the pores of the skin are opened, and almost every 
organ participates in the excitement ; and in too much 
exercise we raise too much excitement. I wish it un- 
derstood and remembered, that in lowering this excite- 
ment, and returning to rest, the evils of over exercise 
are oftener manifest than in the exercise itself ; let no 
one, therefore, who has taken too much exercise seek to 
lower the excitement by wetting the face and hands, or 
breast, nor plunge the body in cold water ; neither sit in 
cool, damp air, nor lie in wet clothes, nor on damp places, 
for by this means you would check too suddenly the 
whole course of nature, and settle upon some organ or 
organs the impurities which were in their course to find 
an outlet, either by the pores of the skin or otherwise ; 
and thereby produce disease in the liver, lungs, bowels, 
or other organs ; but cool off by degrees, and if neces- 
sary, take some mild stimulants, such as warm coffee, 
tea, etc. This subject would admit of much more, indeed 
it is but barely touched, for prudence in eating, drinking, 
and exercise, requires more discretion on the part of 
man to maintain good health and prevent disease than 
all other influences whatever under his control. In other 
words, these are more completely under the control of 
his volition than all others. To sum it up in few words, 
eat and drink to live, and exercise for duty and health. 

Rest is as necessary to health as exercise ; the most 
2 



26 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

important part of rest is that taken in sleep. Rest im 
plies a relaxation of the muscles engaged in moving the 
body ; the muscles by constant exercise become feeble, 
that is, they expend more vigor during the time they are 
engaged in exercise than they receive, which requires 
rest to restore the lost energy. Rest is equal to this task 
when duly taken. It is comparable to a mill-pond, which 
by grinding all day, loses its head and force of water, but 
by shutting down the gates regains it by morning. Rest 
is sweet to the laboring man . 

The time required for man to take rest in sleep, is in 
general about eight hours during the twenty-four, or 
about one-third of the time, which should be taken during 
the darkness and stillness of night, yet he can do with 
one-fourth, or six hours in twenty-four. 

More sleep is required during winter than summer, 
from the fact, I suppose, that the system has to generate 
more heat in winter than in the summer. The general 
rule of eight hours sleep will not apply to all persons, for 
some require more sleep than others ; the young generally 
require more sleep than the aged. 

Too much sleep is injurious, therefore persons should 
regulate the time of sleep to the requirements of nature, 
which will rarely exceed ten hours in the twenty-four. 
The evil of indulging in too much sleep is not as often 
manifest as the evils of other intemperance, yet it is an 
evil and should be avoided. Over-sleeping produces 
dullness of the mind, weakness of the nerves, and general 
effeminacy of the body. Disease is sometimes the result. 
The hours to commence sleep, for adults or grown per- 
sons, should be from nine to ten o'clock, p.m. ; children 
earlier. As a general rule, persons should not go to 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 27 

sleep until the elapse of one and a-half to two hours 
after supper. Early to bed and early to rise, is an old 
and correct adage. The place of rest should be a bed 
sufficiently soft to be easy. I know this remark does not 
quadrate or suit the opinion of some other authors. 
They cite soldiers, wagoners, etc., as evidence that hard 
lying is most congenial to health ; but I note that this 
is not fair reasoning, for generally these are the most 
hardy and robust people, of cheerful minds and lively 
temperament ; their calling and their exercise require 
them neither to sleep nor eat too much, and their exer- 
cise is regular. The teachings of nature are the best 
evidence to me. These call for a comfortable soft place ; 
yet it is not best to have too much bed around us ; 
nature does not demand this ; hence, a good mattress, 
and a thin feather bed on it, make, perhaps, the most 
agreeable and healthy bedding of any other. Give not 
sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids during 
hours of necessary exercise or study. Work while it is 
day, that your sleep may be sweet and refreshing when 
the hours of rest shall have come. 

Light and Heat. — These two principles are so inti- 
mately connected that it requires a closer and a clearer 
discrimination to separate them than this work demands 
or will allow. That great and mysterious luminous 
body called the sun is the principal source of both light 
and heat for the inhabitants of this earth, without whose 
vivifying influence and benign effects all animate nature 
would cease to live, and the wheels of natural order, so 
to speak, would be chained in one congealed mass of in- 
action or death. But the great Author of all good has, 



28 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

in mercy, been pleased to form a better state of things, 
for which men ought to praise Him for his goodness and 
wonderful works to the children of men. The sun por- 
trays, perhaps, as much of the wisdom, power and good- 
ness of God as any of the visible works of his hands. 

Of what the sun is composed it is vain in man to 
attempt to search out. It is enough for man to know 
that the sun answers the purpose the wisdom of God 
designs, and the benefits of men and animals require. 
Observation proves to us that the sun emits rays of light 
and heat from every conceivable point, however minute, 
so that the rays, passing directly forward, illumines and 
warms every part of the earth's surface next to it ; and 
as the earth is continually turning her surface to the sun, 
so every part is warmed and enlightened once in every 
twenty-four hours. These rays are more or less intense 
as they are more or less direct, that is directly over us, 
and the further we are from under the sun the more ob- 
liquely the rays strike us and of course the less heat. 
Some parts of the earth, from this fact, have not as much 
heat as others. 

A wise Creator has not caused us to depend upon the 
rays of the sun alone for heat or warmth ; He has given 
us another element, called fire, by which we can create 
a local heat to any degree we wish ; and not only does this 
element furnish us with local heat and light in the absence 
of the sun's rays, but it affords us another convenience — 
it enables us the better to prepare our food by cooking, 
so as to make it more digestable. All these blessings 
call aloud for praise to Him who gave and governs 
these laws. Health, vigor, and life itself, are dependent 
upon them. Again, light is a typical test of obedience 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 29 

and virtue. Innocency and childhood prefer the day, 
they choose light ; but vice and immorality prefer dark- 
ness, they choose the night. We see this manifest in 
natural things, as every day occurrences, and it enables 
us to comprehend the force of the remark of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, when He says : " He that doeth righteous- 
ness cometh to the light, but he that doeth evil hateth 
the light." He is the true light. The force of these 
remarks may be comprehended when we remember that 
the wages of sin is death. The violation of any law pro- 
duces pain, uneasiness, and sometimes death. 

In addition to the warmth received by the rays of the 
sun, and the local warmth of fire, God has, in mercy, 
given a principle in the animal economy by which heat 
(or, as it is called, caloric) may be produced or gener- 
ated. This is accomplished by food being taken into 
the stomach, digested and converted into blood, and is 
then taken to the lungs, where it comes in contact with 
the air and a chemical action takes place, whereby 
caloric (or heat) is generated. This process purifies the 
blood and gives vitality to the whole system. With re- 
gard to the practical part of" this subject, we shall only 
say that the law giving us the two first principles of 
heat is not as liable to be violated by man as the last. 
The instincts of our nature teach us how we ought to 
receive the heat of the rays of the sun and the warmth 
of fire ; but reason and experience have much to do in 
guiding us through the process of generating heat by 
food, (which has been referred to under the head, Food.) 
However, I will make one remark further, before I leave 
this part of the subject : i.e., in summer we should 
neither be too warmly clothed nor eat too much, especially 



30 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

of very rich diet, as fat pork, etc. ; and when we are 
liable to the sun's rays, never over exercise. To violate 
with impunity either of these rules, brings its sad con- 
sequences. Too much heat enervates the nervous system, 
paralyzes the whole economy, and renders the system 
subject to disease in various form. 

Having referred to the laws or forces whose influences 
tend to the support of animal life, or the support of 
health, I shall now notice some of those whose influences 
tend to the destruction of health and the ultimate dissolu- 
tion of the animal powers. The irrevocable decree that 
has gone forth by the immutable Judge of all things, 
against man as an offender, must eventually prevail, for 
He has said unto him, " From dust thou art, and unto dust 
thou shalt return." Hence the laws of disease and 
death will sooner or later prevail over the laws of 
health and temporal life ; yet, as probationers, men do 
not sin in seeking to avoid the former and support the 
latter. Therefore the corrupted or perverted passions, 
which so powerfully depress the vital principle, ought 
to be understood, and their evils warded off as far as 
possible. 

Debased or Slavish Fear chills the blood, weakens 
the nerves, and impedes the circulation, and thereby 
renders the system liable to pain and disease. This 
kind of fear is an insupportable dread of what is 
thought may take place, and is the first confessed evi- 
dence of sin recorded in the Bible. To fear to do wrong 
is a different kind of fear. This is the fear recommended 
in the Bible ; it is to fear God. The first is a fear of 
punishment, or the dread of consequences which follow 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 31 

sin, and has its torments ; the latter has the promise of 
God, and has its peace. It is this debased fear that we 
are to overcome ; it is to be overcome by remembering 
that God rules all things, and that He will reward the 
righteous and punish the transgressors. 

Anger rouses the circulation, inflames the mind, and 
lashes the nerves to an unwarrantable pitch ; in a word, 
the whole man seems to be heated and swelled, and if 
increased and continued, like the dry boiler, would soon 
melt or burst ; and yet, when it goes off, it leaves the 
system languid, feeble and depressed. Anger drives the 
fluids, with the impurities, into organs, sometimes in im- 
proper quantities, and like the surf in high water, cannot 
be carried off again when anger goes down ; therefore, 
these organs are choked up or overloaded, and perhaps 
become diseased. Therefore indulge not in improper 
anger ; it is like swallowing pointed instruments, it 
makes a wound within which the hand cannot remove. 

Jealousy. — An unmanly or an unholy jealousy is like 
drawing a crosscut saw through the mind, it produces 
anger, fear, remorse, and melancholy. Jealousy cannot 
remain in the system long without its effects being visi- 
ble. Therefore, indulge not in jealousy, lest some vital 
cord be cut or some important organ become prostra- 
ted. This jealousy, as we here use it, implies a dread of 
a rival, a suspicious watchfulness of the encroachments 
of a real or a supposed superior upon our real or an- 
ticipated rights ; therefore jealousy of this character, 
without grounds, is a debased passion, unworthy of a 
place in the mind of a sane person. There is a jealousy 



32 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

spoken of in the Scriptures, which means watchfulness 
for another's good ; this is called a godly jealousy. 
This does not wear out the physical system. 

Melancholy is another passion which produces great 
inroads upon the vital organism, but as its effects have 
been referred to, under the head of the exercise of the 
mind, you are referred to that head. All these passions 
have their origin in the mind, and as some remarks have 
been made with regard to the exercise of the mind, I 
forbear to make any further remarks, but only make a 
few quotations from the Scriptures, in order to give 
weight to the importance of the mind. It is said, " Sor- 
row of the world worketh death," (2 Cor. vii. 10) ; 
" By sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken," (Prov. xv. 
13) ; "Anger rests in the bosom of fools. Let all 
anger be put away with all malice," (Eph. iv. 31) ; 
" The fear of man bringeth a snare," (Prov. xxix. 25.) 
Again it is said by the prophet : "A merry heart maketh a 
cheerful countenance," (Prov. xv. 13) ; " A merry heart 
doeth good like a medicine," (Prov. xvii. 22.) With these 
scriptures to sustain us it seems to me no man will doubt 
the propriety of a due regard to the exercising or train- 
ing of the mind, to ward off disease and support health. 
Without following the perplexing and uncertain mean- 
ings of many metaphysicians, with regard to the mind, 
hoping that all my readers will have a clear view with 
regard to the term mind, than they would were I to 
strive to elucidate further, and whether we understand 
what the mind is or is not, if we can govern the passions 
we have accomplished all that we could, even though we 
were to write volumes upon the subject. 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 33 

Cold is another great power to produce disease, and 
more particularly when combined with dampness. Cold 
benumbs the system, drives back the fluids, diverts them 
from their proper course, and lodges them upon some 
organ ; overpowers the organ and produces disease. Thus 
cold damp feet will sometimes produce soreness of the 
throat in a few hours, sometimes it produces pneumo- 
nia or the pleurisy, sometimes rheumatism ; it affects the 
bowels, etc. Therefore prudence demands regular tem- 
perature as well as temperance in all things. Let no one 
then unnecessarily expose himself to cold or damp- 
ness ; be warmly and dryly clothed in winter, and cool 
and pleasant in summer. Stronger food may be al- 
lowed in winter than summer, where exercise is duly 
taken. 

Poison. — The term poison means any substance which 
has a tendency when it comes in contact with the vital 
principle to destroy it. These substances are various and 
numerous ; some are gaseous, such as float in the air ; some 
liquid, some solid ; animal poison, as in the snake and 
spider, the scorpion, etc. ; vegetable poison, as the helle- 
bore, nightshade, etc. ; and mineral poisons, as arsenic, 
antimony, etc. From vegetables poison may be extracted, 
which are not detectable in the native state, as the prussic 
acid. But as reason and experience have taught the 
lesson, too plainly and too indelibly to be misunderstood 
or soon forgotten, to avoid poisons, it will not be neces- 
sary to make further remarks, in this part of my work, 
further than upon some poisons used as medicines ; and 
I -here state that it is a lamentable fact that there have 
been more talent and money expended in the last three 



34 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

hundred years, to less effect, in trying to harmonize 
poisons to the laws of nature, so as for them to become 
sanative or healthy agents, than all other systems of 
science, perhaps, put together. The three kingdoms, as 
they are called, the mineral, the vegetable, and the ani- 
mal, have been searched for their poisons. They have 
been searched for and tried, until there is scarcely a 
known poison but in some way it has been used as a 
medicine. Some of the most able philosophers, and the 
most skillful chemists have been engaged in this matter ; 
they have tried every mode, manner, and quantity, and 
hundreds, perhaps, of different combinations have all 
been tried, and what is the result ? The practice of 
medicine under this system— notwithstanding all the ex- 
perience, and all the time that has been spent in learn- 
ing, and all the great men that have spent their talents 
in research after research, and all the money that has been 
spent in these researches and experiments— is yet as un- 
certain, perhaps, as it was three hundred years ago. 
Where is the fault— is it in the want of talent? surely 
not, or else where will we go to find talent? Is it 
for the want of time ? or is it for the want of money ? 
It certainly cannot be either of these. Surely then it is 
for the want of means. Doubtless the proper agents 
for removing disease have not been used, or else we are 
forced to conclude that such agents have not been 
given to the control of man. How unreasonable is it, 
and how perverting to the use of terms, to say that a 
poison is a medicine ! I forbear further remarks, leaving 
the reader to reflect and make his own deductions. 

Medicine.— When we come to treat upon the subject 



PKELIMINAEY REMARKS. 35 

of medicine, and following the science as almost univer- 
sally taught, we are drawn towards a whirlpool of dif- 
ficulty, from which it is with the greatest skill in the 
medical mariner that we can escape being engulfed. In 
the science we are instructed that medicine is a power 
possessing a principle to heal, or in other words, it is 
that which aids the living principle to remove disease.* 
Again we are informed in the science that poison is 
a substance that destroys vitality ; and yet we hear it 
taught that the most virulent poisons, in proper pro- 
portions, make the best medicines. (See Hooper's Medi- 
cal Dictionary.) This whirlpool has doubtless engulfed 
the minds of hundreds of practitioners in doubt and un- 
certainty, and the body of many a poor sufferer, per- 
haps, in an untimely grave. If the term medicine im- 
plies a power to heal (and if it does not mean this it 
surely means nothing that common sense can understand), 
then we should not use anything as medicine but such 
articles as harmonize with the laws supporting life, or 
that strengthen the vital principle. Yet we must award 
this to the science, that through the skill and ingenuity 
of the learned experimenters much of the virulence of 
the poisons used as medicines has been modified, so as 
to act in many cases on some constitutions only as an 
irritant, sometimes mildly, so that a seeming benefit is 
the result ; at other times, and on different constitutions, 
the same articles do not manifest the same degree of 
mildness ; and at other times, again, its virulence cannot 
be prevented. The importance then of a family work, 
free from this danger and uncertainty, is doubtless 
manifest to all. If this dangerous and uncertain course 

* Common sense receives this view. 



36 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

of medication is to be followed, it is best to leave it in 
the hands of those who profess to understand its dan 
gers, and who ought to teach it to the people. Medicine 
proper does conform to the laws of vitality, and nothing 
else, and more especially in a family work ought it to 
be set forth in that light. The author therefore designs 
this work as a family guide, with sanative agents only. 
When we consider health as a blessing, and disease 
as a chastisement, we are led to believe that the laws 
governing health are in some sense or degree placed un- 
der the control of man, as well as many of the comforts 
cf this life. These laws are understood and witnessed 
by experience. The man who uses industry and econo- 
my rarely lacks the things necessary for the body. So 
also he who is temperate in all things, and observes 
strictly the laws of nature, is usually strong and healthy, 
and escapes many attacks of disease. Disease being the 
effect or consequence of a violation of the laws of vital- 
ity, so medicine is a favor bestowed by a wise Creator 
and a gracious Benefactor, to extenuate the guilt of 
violating these laws ; or, in other words, to remove dis- 
ease and restore to health. God has not left man en- 
tirely in the dark as to what medicine is ; He has told us 
in Jeremiah that " medicine is designed to heal," (xxx. 
13, xlvi. 11.) In Ezekiel (xlvii. 12,) He tells us t " the 
fruit of the tree is meat, and the leaves are for medi- 
cine." Medicine ought to have the same ultimate effects 
as food, being possessed of the same principles ; that is, 
the power to support vitality or the living being, 
equally harmless and quite as efficacious, and which comes 
immediately in place of food, when food cannot support 
health. Is not this reasonable ? Is it not the truth ? 



PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 37 

The author in this work will set nothing before the pub- 
lic as a medicine, but what may be relied upon with 
confidence, both as to innocency and power, according 
to the best authority and his own experience. Not that 
he would convey the idea that these medicines cannot 
be perverted and made to produce bad effects, but 
that they are in their nature as innocent as food, and 
when used in proper doses, on the right occasions, are as 
efficacious. Food and drink may be used improperly to 
produce bad effects. This cannot be said of poisons, for 
the nature of a poison is to destroy vitality, however min- 
ute its portion may be ; otherwise we can make no dis- 
tinction beween poison and medicine. If it be an 
escharotic, it matters not how small the portion is, its 
tendency is to irritate ; if it be a narcotic it manifests 
itself by overcoming the vital energy. Poison is figura- 
tively spoken of in Scripture to represent sin, and medi- 
cine is spoken of in the same way to represent grace, or 
that which gives health. Paul says : " Shall we con- 
tinue in sin, that grace may abound ? God forbid ! " 
Then shall we take poison that health may abound ? 
How can it be ? 

I have remarked that disease was chastisement or pun- 
ishment as a penalty for the violation of some law of 
nature or of God, yet it manifests itself differently ac- 
cording to the law violated, and the extent of the viola- 
tion, and the circumstances with which they are sur- 
rounded ; as for instance, we suppose three men to be 
affected, one by the sting of a wasp, another with the 
poison of a spider, and the other by the bite of a rattle- 
snake ; it is obvious that all will not suffer alike, owing 
to the quantity and virulence of the poison to which 



38 PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 

each has been subjected. Again, we suppose three men, 
each to be stung by a different honey bee ; here we may 
conclude that the quantity and quality of the poison 
received by each to be equal, but the effect is different 
in each, owing to the ability of the different constitu- 
tions to ward off the effect of the poison, and other 
surrounding circumstances. Thus it may be said of all 
the causes producing disease. Hence it is more correct 
to say, different forms of disease, than to say different 
diseases ; and although we may treat different manifesta- 
tions of disease under separate heads, yet we wish it 
distinctly remembered, that whatever form disease may 
assume, it is but a weakened state of the vital functions ; 
therefore, all remedial agents or medicines that are 
truly sanative, go to strengthen and support vitality, 
and thereby remove disease, for disease is weakened 

VITALITY. 

Having gone through the description of the laws gov- 
erning health, and those which produce disease, it is 
hoped the reader will appreciate them, so as to give 
them a careful and candid perusal, and what is worthy- 
keep and practice ; while we turn to disease in its multi- 
plied forms to seek its origin and removal. 



39 



FEVER. 

Under this head much speculation has arisen, men 
have spent time and talent trying to search out and 
define and explain the term fever. It is yet unsettled and 
in darkness as to its true cause and real effects. Many 
of the most eminent men in the profession of medicine, 
have taken very wide and different views upon this ab- 
struse question. Some have supposed that it is caused 
from too much stimuli in the blood, others again suppose 
it is for the want of stimuli. Dr. Rush is quoted as at- 
tributing it to a convulsive action in the blood ; others 
suppose it originates from a morbid state of the stomach. 
Some hold it as entirely a pathological condition ; while 
others claim it to be entirely a physiological manifesta- 
tion. My observation and experience have led me to 
view it as the effect of poisonous particles in the blood, 
brought from external causes or sources and received 
into the blood, mostly through the lungs and pores of 
the skin, or else generated in the system from external 
causes, and which act depressingly and forcibly upon 
the outlets of organs and the points of Nerves. For 
example, in burns the escharotic or searing influence of 
the fire depresses the points of the nerves ; the first mani- 
festation of the effect is coldness (after the fire is ex- 
tracted) ; after this, if the system has vitality enough 



40 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

left, reaction takes place and fever is the result. So, 
likewise, from cold, pneumonia, pleurisies, rheumatisms, 
etc., are produced. The cold depresses the extremities 
of the nerves, closes up the pores of the skin and drives 
back the fluids, and the impurities which should have 
been thrown out are retained in the blood, which irri- 
tates to extra reaction, and is termed fever. This re- 
action rages until the desired object is attained, which 
is to find an outlet for these impurities ; or else some 
organ sinks under their irritating influence. Fever is 
comparable to anger. Anger acts upon the mind 
and fever on the blood, and as the mind of man has 
never been properly understood, nor the operations of 
anger upon it, so there is a vital principle in the blood 
which has not been fully understood or fully explained ■ 
nor has the modus operandi of the invisible poisonous 
particles of matter, operating upon the blood, been fully 
demonstrated. We judge of the effects while we do not 
fully understood the cause. Limited anger is prudent ; 
and we are forced to admit that fever, to some extent, 
is necessary. Without reaction — we cannot see how 
disease could be removed. Yet we cannot view fever, 
under all its phases as a friend, for Jesus rebuked the 
fever on Peter's wife's mother ; He would not rebuke a 
friend. All forms of fever are produced from impurities 
in the blood, and this is proved from the fact that as 
soon as this impure state of the blood is corrected the 
fever ceases. The only variation then, which these 
different forms of fever admit of, is their different modi- 
fications ; and that is dependent on the quantity and 
virulence of the poison on one hand, and the vital power 
of the system to resist the influence of these irritating 



FEVER. 41 

causes on the other ; and as the great outlet of the 
system by which these impurities are thrown off, is the 
pores of the skin, which open up a passage, and carry 
them out in the form of sweat, therefore, in giving 
medicine it should be a primary object to aid this im- 
portant function. But the skin is not the only outlet • 
the lungs, the bowels, and the urinary organs, also have 
their part to perforin in removing morbific matter ; they 
likewise give aid, in disease, but do not force nor oppress ; 
and as the stomach is the great seat of sympathy and 
perhaps the governing organ in the animal economy, it 
partakes with every diseased organ, and almost to the 
extent of the organ itself. It is the first object to at- 
tend to the stomach, for without its aid we can obtain 
but little benefit, either from medicine, food, or^rink. 
Let this view ever be kept fresh in the minds of the ad- 
ministrator of medicine or a prophylactic director. Not 
too much heat, nor too much cold, and no powerful 
escharotic or narcotic, ought to enter the stomach. Let 
it be cleansed and nourished, and stimulated (not irri- 
tated) when needed, for this is the much prized and 
long concealed power of medicine. 

Treatment — Inflammatory fever, Continued or Raging 
Fever — Synochal of the books. This form of fever is 
characterized by a hot skin, full strong pulse, flushed face, 
pain in the. head ; and sometimes delirium, which is 
more unfavorable. It is caused from fatigue, cold and 
dampness, etc. If let run it usually forms a crisis, or turn, 
about the seventh or ninth day. The first object to be 
had in view in treating this form of fever is to quiet the 
excitement, relax the system, and restore an equilibrium 



42 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

of circulation. To accomplish this, let the hands and 
face and forehead be sponged in water and vinegar, give 
a full puke of lobelia or ipecacuanha taken in broken 
doses, either in bayberry and ginger, sage, or balm tea. 
One tea-spoonful of lobelia, divided in four portions, and 
one taken every twenty minutes, is usually sufficient ; 
but sometimes it has to be repeated. This generally re- 
laxes the system, removes morbific matter, and quiets 
the nerves, and prepares the stomach for other medicine. 
After the puke, and the stomach becomes quiet, give a 
dose of rhubarb and black root, or mandrake ; twenty 
grains of the two former, or fifteen of the latter, is usu- 
ally a dose. I usually combine two or more of the arti- 
cles. Make out the dose and divide it into two parts ; 
take one half and wait four or five hours, and if it does 
not operate, divide the other half into four parts, and 
take one every hour until it does operate. After it oper- 
ates, let the patient immerse his feet and legs in warm 
water, in which soda or lye has been diluted, until the 
water becomes slick ; drink warm teas while bathing the 
feet — balm, sage, horsemint, catnip, or bayberry and gin- 
ger ; the head may be kept wet in cool vinegar and 
water, or salt and water, both while bathing or in bed ; 
after bathing return to bed. If sweating has been in- 
duced, let the patient drink freely of warm teas in bed 
for an hour or more ; if no sweating has been produced 
by bathing and teas, let the whole body be sponged in 
tepid water, with soda or weak lye in it. If the feet 
be colder than the head, or in other words if the feet 
are cold and the head hot, apply a warm brick wrapped 
in damp cloths to the feet, and cool cloths wet to the 
head ; and sometimes the palms of the hands, and even 



BILIOUS FEVER. 43 

the breast may be sponged in cold water. To weak 
patients tepid water is preferable to cold water. Con- 
tinue this treatment, that is to say, puke three or four 
times in seven days, and give an injection every night, 
or enough rhubarb, either single or combined, every 
other day, to keep the bowels in a slightly laxative 
state, and take warm teas all the time freely. Take 
enough lobelia in bayberry and ginger tea to nauseate 
the stomach once or twice a day ; balm, sage, catnip or 
horsemint may be used ; and in case of severe pain in 
the head, back or bowels, apply cataplasm or poultice 
with pepper or mustard sufficient to burn the patient 
tolerably severely. If mustard is used, do not let it re- 
main long enough to blister, but renew it or substitute 
pepper, and the patient by the seventh day or before 
will almost always manifest symptoms for the better, 
unless there is combination with some other form of 
disease. When there is much thirst, let the patient drink 
slippery elm water or mucilage. 

Bilious Fever. — This fever is attended with an a- 
bundant secretion of a vitiated, bile, produced from hot 
weather and a poisonous gas called malaria, or miasmatic 
gas, and most usually after a change from hot to cool 
or damp weather. This malaria or poisonous matter 
enters the system through the lungs and is conveyed 
directly into the blood. It enters the liver, and coming 
in contact with the bile destroys its vitality or useful- 
ness ; the liver is excited to throw it out ; it enters the 
duodenum, or second stomach, but being vitiated and no 
longer useful for the ordinary purposes to which it is 
designed, it becomes itself a foreign and poisonous mat- 



41 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

ter, and by a regurgitating move, it is carried to the up- 
per stomach, or stomach proper. It enters the Iacteals, 
or mouths of the vessels which convey the juices or 
liquids of the stomach and bowels to the blood vessels ; 
it enters these vessels and with the blood is carried to 
every part of the system. The first manifestations of 
its pernicious effects, are depression, languor, pain, stretch- 
ing, drowsiness, chilliness, and shaking ague; and the 
re-action is called bilious fever, from the fact that when 
the vis vitce, or natural powers of nature, aided either 
by medicine or otherwise, throws off this poisonous mat- 
ter, this vitiated bile is visible in the emesis, sweat, 
urine, and faeces*, or stools. The fever rages an indefi- 
nate period of time, but usually abates, sooner or later, 
during twenty-four hours. This abatement, I suppose, 
is brought about from relaxation and a more general 
equilibrium of circulation ; and a sweating or moist stage 
is manifest, but has its reaction and abatement for seve- 
ral days, until the powers of nature are enabled to re- 
lieve the system by throwing off this poisonous matter, 
or else sinks under its influence. 

Treatment— In treating of this disease the same 
general course is to be observed ; that is, to aid but not 
depress the vital energies ; and reason, as well as the 
very efforts of nature, tell us to puke in this fever. The 
vitiated bile which is in the stomach (proper), is much 
easier and more safely removed by an emetic, than in 
any other way. To drive all this morbific and poisonous 
matter through the whole course of the bowels, by 
cathartics, is doubtless a forced and not a natural 
course, for the very spontaneous efforts of nature, if I 



BILIOUS FEVER. 45 

may use such a term, say puke in this attack. Nausea 
or puking will be almost invariably present in some 
stage of this fever, and usually at the commencement of 
the reaction, or rise of the fever. Not only does a 
lobelia emetic or of ipecacuanha, remove morbific matter 
and bile from the stomach, but its relaxing influence 
aids powerfully to hasten the lowering or sweating 
stage. Therefore, give a puke in the outset, of some 
safe agent, of which lobelia is the best. A tea-spoonful 
of lobelia in a cup of bayberry and ginger tea, divided into 
four parts, take one every twenty or thirty minutes until 
puking is effected ; if that is not sufficient, give another in 
the same way. Drink of other teas enough to fill the 
stomach, and the puke will be easy, but not usually as 
effectual ; after the puke has been taken, at the lower- 
ing of the fever, give a dose of rhubarb and mandrake ; 
twenty grains of the first and fifteen of the latter is a 
usual dose, but as there is a constitutional difference, 
the better way is to take it in broken doses. Take one 
half in tea, syrup or water ; wait five hours, and if it 
does not operate, nor any symptoms of it, take one 
fourth of the remaining portion, (or that which was left 
of the first half.) wait one hour, and if there is no oper- 
ation, take another one-fourth, and so on, until it does 
operate. Seek to promote sweating as soon as possible. 
Slippery-elm water and sweating. teas, catnip, balm, sage, 
or mint, may be drunk freely during the rage of the fever, 
and ginger or composition teas when the fever goes off. 
After the stomach and bowels have been cleansed, and 
the fever sweat off, the patient may take stimulants or 
tonics to prevent its return. These ought to be taken 
in the interval, between the going off of the fever and 



46 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

the return of the chill ; if there is an interval of from 
three to five hours it will be sufficient. From ten to fif- 
teen grains of quinine, with an equal quantity of pounded 
red pepper and half the quantity of lobelia seeds 
pounded fine, and taken in broken doses, according to 
the length of the interval, will usually prove effectual. 
Jt may be made into pills, or taken in syrup or water ; 
or take from two to three tea-spoonfuls of good pounded 
ginger, taken in syrup, and wrap up in bed, and drink 
sweating teas plentifully, will very frequently prove suc- 
cessful in warding off a return of the chill. If the fever 
is not broken up the first day, repeat the course of 
puking and sweating each succeeding day until it is 
broken up ; and to aid the sweating off of the fever, 
give broken doses of lobelia with the sweating teas 
during the rage of the fever. Relieve the bowels by 
rhubarb or other mild purges ; or, if the patient is weak, 
give stimulating injections composed of bayberry, ginger 
and lobelia, a tea-spoonful of each to the half-pint of boil- 
ing water. Every other day is often enough to give a pur- 
gative dose of medicine ; bathe the feet and legs after 
sweating in warm water with soapsuds, lye or soda. 
After the fever is broken, take bitters or lobelia pills 
(one at a time) after eating, for several days, accordingly, 
longer or shorter, as the patient has been reduced. 
Cleanse the stomach and bowels, and promote sweating, 
and the fever will give way. The doses of medicine as 
above directed are for grown persons ; give less for chil- 
dren, according to age. Children of six or eight years 
one-third ; younger, still less in proportion. If the fever 
assumes the continued or synochal form, in addition to 
what is above directed to sweat off the fever, sponge the 



CHILLS AND FEVEE. 47 

body, and more especially the face and breast, in tepid 
water, and in some cases, where the fever is very high, 
cold water is preferable. 

Chilis and Fever, or Fever and Ague, as it is 

known. — This form of fever differs very little from 
bilious fever, the only difference seems to be in its 
violence ; it is only a milder form. When it takes place, 
or recurs, every day, it must be treated in the same 
manner, the cause usually being the same ; that is, cleanse 
the stomach and bowels by puking and gentle laxative 
or mild purgative medicine, lobelia or ipecacuanha is 
the best puke, and rhubarb, mandrake or blackroot 
makes as good a purge as any other, either single or 
combined, taken in broken doses ; (see Dose) ; then give 
stimulants and tonics to prevent a return. Equal quanti- 
ties of Cayenne pepper and quinine, and two-thirds lobelia 
seeds pounded fine, make a good remedy to ward off the 
return of chills. Fifteen or twenty grains of the two 
first, and about one-third less of the last is a suitable 
dose for adults. Keduce for children and weakly women. 
Divide into seven portions, and give, five or six hours 
before the chill is expected, one portion, and the remain- 
der at regular hours till all is taken. The lobelia pre- 
vents the liability of ringing in the head from the 
quinine. When it recurs every other day, or every third 
day ; that is, misses two days and attacks the third, take 
two or three tea-spoonfuls of good ground ginger in syrup 
or otherwise, and wrap up in bed, and drink freely of 
sweating teas, such as balm, catnip, horsemint, etc., 
which will usually break up the chills without any other 
remedy, and it will rarely return, especially if the free use 



48 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

of Cayenne is had at meals for fifteen or twenty-one days. 
In long standing cases of every other day, or every third 
day, chills and fever, the following treatment will gen- 
erally prove effectual in breaking up the periodical re- 
turn : Just as the fever begins to sweat off, give a good 
puke of lobelia in ginger and bayberry tea ; after puking 
place the patient over a steam bath, (see Steam-bathing), 
and continue twenty or thirty minutes, or even longer, if 
it is pleasant, and does not fatigue the patient, drinking 
at the same time ginger or composition tea. After the 
bath, wipe dry and go to bed, and take ten grains, each 
of rhubarb and mandrake ; continue in bed two hours, 
wait two or three hours longer, and if the medicine does 
not operate, take half as much more. When it has oper- 
ated, take bitters of dogwood-root bark, poplar-root 
bark and wild cherry-tree bark, which may be continued 
three or four days. These barks may be taken in sub- 
stance if pounded fine, otherwise tincture, in good spi- 
rits ; Peruvian bark is equally good, or quinine and pep- 
per, equal parts, ten grains each, in broken doses. 

Typhoid Fever. — This is a malignant form of fe- 
ver, and very insidious in its approach. It is characterized 
by dullness of feelings, want of appetite, sometimes slight 
giddiness and nausea, and frequently an unusual sensation 
in the region of the stomach. The patient does not seem 
to be sick enough to take his bed, and yet has but little 
resolution or power to act. This premonitory stage, 
as it is sometimes called, continues from two or three to 
seven or eight days before the fever fully develops itself. 
It is emphatically a fever of debility or weakness, and 
according to my observation, the longer this premonitory 



TYPHOID FEVER. 49 

stage continues, if the fever does fully develop itself, the 
more severe the case usually is ; and I wish it distinctly 
understood, and constantly remembered, that during this 
stage is the time to do battle against this form of fever ; 
and no time should be lost in giving proper remedies. 
As it is a disease of debility, tending to putrescency, the 
strongest and most active sanative medicines or agents 
ought to be used ; but weakening or debilitating agents 
ought not to be resorted to. . Be careful to take the di- 
rections as follows : immediately upon the first symptom 
of the bad feelings, take a common-sized pill, made of 
pounded lobelia seeds and Cayenne pepper, equal parts ; 
take one after each meal ; bathe the feet well in warm 
soda or lye water, and drink a cup full of good compo- 
sition tea, the composition to be composed of good bay- 
berry one part, white ginger half-part, and one-eighth 
each of pepper and cloves ; a tea-spoonful of the pow- 
ders to a cup of boiling water ; steep thirty minutes, or 
till cool enough to drink ; sweeten it so as to be palatable, 
drink and go to bed. Repeat the next day, and sponge 
the body at night in tepid water. Continue this course, 
it is perfectly safe. The patient may attend to his ordi- 
nary light business, but not exercise too much, so as to 
fatigue himself. It will shorten and perhaps relieve over 
half the cases before the fever is fully established, and 
where it does not cure, it greatly modifies the severity 
of the attack. I have never witnessed a case where this 
course was pursued as here directed, that the patient be- 
came delirious, or was confined over fourteen days ; and 
I am satisfied, from a constant attendance on the sick 
and in the sick room, that it has stopped some cases after 
the premonitory symptoms were fully developed, and that, 
3 



50 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

too, under the most unfavorable circumstances ; but I 
know it is bard to determine what anything would have 
been had it been different from what it was, especially in 
cases where we have not, or cannot make experiments. 
But if the fever should set in, give a puke of lobelia in 
strong bayberry and ginger tea. In this disease, there is a 
great tendency to putrescency or corruption in the fluids 
and secretions of the stomach and bowels, and the bayber- 
ry being a good antiseptic or preventive of this corruption, 
it ought to be used extensively in this fever ; after puk- 
ing, make a tea of bayberry, pleurisy root, (called also 
butterfly-root,) and ginger, one and a half tea-spoonfuls 
of bayberry, and one each of the other two ; put into 
a half-pint of boiling water, sweetened with good sugar, 
(loaf is the best,) and drink freely, keeping the feet warm 
with warm bricks or rocks wrapped in damp cloths, and 
keep the head cool ; if necessary, apply wet cloths, wrapped 
in vinegar or mint water ; (beat up peppermint and squeeze 
in water ;) take a lobelia pill eveiw three, four or five 
hours. Move the bowels by injections, which are best 
prepared of strong bayberry tea, with a portion of red 
pepper in it — say as much as would lie on a five cent 
piece. If these injections do not bring away the morbific 
matter, take half a tea-spoonful of good rhubarb and a 
little bunch of peppermint, and add two- thirds of a cup 
of boiling water ; set it by the fire to steep thirty or forty 
minutes ; then strain, and sweeten well with loaf sugar ; 
give two or three table-spoonfuls every two hours until 
it produces a motion on the bowels. While taking the 
rhubarb, do not take more than half the quantity of the 
other medicines. Severe purging is dangerous. If the 
bowels seem disposed to run off, give freely of strong 



TYPHOID FEVEE. 51 

bayberry and ginger tea, and half the quantity of witch 
hazel might be added in severe cases. Sponge or bathe 
the body every other day in luke-warm water in which 
salt or soda is dissolved, enough of the soda or weak lye 
to make the water slick. If there is any appetite divide 
the time of giving the lobelia pills, so as to give one in 
fifteen minutes after eating, but not within two hours 
and a half before eating. If there is much tenderness 
of the bowels, make a thin poultice of slippery-elm and 
corn meal, and sprinkle it well with red pepper, and ap- 
ply it to the bowels ; boil the meal down, or till it is 
thoroughly cooked. Continue this course ; only puke 
every third or fourth day when the tongue is foul, give 
injection every night, or every other night, if they do 
not move of themselves. If there is thirst, give slippery- 
elm water freely, or a mucilage of the pith of sassafras 
may be used. If the patient desires acids or something 
sour, dried apples steeped in water and sweetened may 
be used, or good apple vinegar, diluted and sweetened, 
may be allowed ; or a little buttermilk, that has been 
well churned and freed of' the butter, with twice the 
quantity of water, may be allowed, if no bad symptoms 
arise. This course of treatment may be relied upon as 
both safe and efficacious. Do not give tonics in this 
disease until there is a turn for the better. Then give 
tonics ; poplar bark, cherry-tree, dogwood bark, and the 
bark of the root of the graybeard or white ash, are all 
good. Peruvian bark, quinine in small portions, or com- 
bined witli pepper, are also good. Light and nourishing 
diet after the patient has an appetite is necessary, but do 
not eat too much ; to avoid the evils of over eating, take 
a lobelia pill after eacli meal for some time. If tonics 



52 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

are used before the crisis, combine them with pepper and 
lobelia. 

Catarrh, or Golds. — Colds are produced from sud- 
den changes in the atmosphere, also from being exposed 
to cold or dampness after fatigue, or want of suitable 
clothing, etc. In all bad attacks of cold take a puke of 
lobelia or ipecac, then drink some sweating teas, as balm, 
sage, composition or any other sweating tea that is harm- 
less. If there is much pain manifest, take nauseating 
doses of lobelia in the teas, and apply a poultice of 
mashed onions or garlic to the soles of the feet ; if the 
pain in the chest is severe, apply the onion poultice over 
the region of pain. This should be done at night when 
the patient is able to go about ; take as much exercise 
in the open dry air as the strength of the patient will 
justify without fatigue. When the patient is able to go 
about, let him take the lobelia pills instead of the warm 
teas, or else take composition in substance in cold water, 
and the warm teas at night on going to bed. This treat- 
ment will break up a case of bad colds usually in a few 
days. If there is fever sponge the body in tepid water. 
Colds sometimes seem to be epidemical, produced from 
an unknown cause in the atmosphere, and pervading 
whole neighborhoods. 

PificaiBBioiiia. — This disease is often the effect of 
cold and dampness after severe mental exercise upon de- 
pressing topics, over-exertion, loud singing, talking, etc. 
It is properly an inflammation of the lungs, wherein the 
stomach, bowels and nervous system often largely partici- 
pate, and particularly the brain. We readily see that this 



PNEUMONIA. 53 

disease requires prompt, safe and energetic treatment, 
because so many vital organs are affected. This disease 
manifests itself by pain in the chest and side, difficult 
breathing, attended with cough, fever, and sometimes se- 
vere pain in the head. In treating of this disease, re- 
laxants, nauseants, and the most powerful sweating med- 
icines, which have the least tendency to excite the circu- 
lation are required ; hence lobelia is one of the safest and 
most effectual medicines that has as yet been known in 
this disease, being powerfully and peculiarly relaxing, 
nauseating and sweating, without weakening the patient 
or exciting the beats of the pulse. 

Treatment. — In the outset give a puke of lobelia in 
boneset tea, or bayberry and ginger tea ; then give lo- 
belia in broken doses in bayberry, ginger and butterfly- 
root tea, give the steam bath frequently, and while over 
the bath give ginger and bayberry tea ; but if the steam 
bath is not practicable, bathe the feet often, yet not so as 
to weary the patient ; keep hot bricks or rocks wrapped 
in damp cloths constantly to the feet, and sometimes to 
the nates or buttocks ; this must not be neglected ; apply 
a poultice made of slippery-elm and corn-meal well 
boiled, sprinkled with red pepper or mustard, over the 
pain, to be removed and reapplied as it gets cold — do 
not let the mustard blister ; roasted onions or garlic may 
be applied to the feet at night, but still keep the warm 
bricks to them, and the onions or garlic may be applied 
occasionally over the pain in lieu of the poultice of elm 
and pepper. Every two hours give as much powdered 
butterfly-root as will lie on the point of a penknife, and 
half the quantity of ginger in a tea made of the same 



54 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

articles, or bayberry and ginger, and at the same time 
give from half to a whole tea-spoonful of lobelia syrup 
(see Lobelia Syrup) ; relieve the bowels by injections ev- 
ery day ; make the injections of teas or gruel, and slightly 
stimulating, so as to produce action ; as much red pepper 
as will lie on the point of a penknife, or a little ginger 
will usually be sufficient ; increase it if necessary. This 
course regularly attended to, will cure most cases of 
this disease. Temperance in eating and exercise, as well 
as caution in not taking cold after the disease is broken 
up, is necessary ; give a lobelia pill after eating in con- 
valescence or recovery. 

Pleurisy. — This form of disease, like pneumonia, is 
in general the effect of cold after fatigue and other de- 
pressing causes checking perspiration ; and is character- 
ized by pain inside, mostly in the right side ; sometimes 
the pain is very severe and sharp, with cough and fever, 
the blood may perhaps be a little more sizy, and the pain 
somewhat more lancinating in this than in pneumonia, 
but the breathing not quite so much depressed. The 
treatment the same as in pneumonia. In pleurisy the 
thin membrane between the lungs and the ribs is mostly 
affected ; in pneumonia the lungs and immediate mem- 
branes are affected, but the relation is so close that it is 
not probable one of these orgaus can be severely affected 
without the other participating to some extent. Give a 
puke of lobelia at the outset, prepared in boneset tea, 
camomile flowers, or bayberry and ginger, a tea-spoonful 
of lobelia in a cup of warm tea or water divided into 
four parts ; take one every twenty or thirty minutes till 
it pukes ; if that does not puke in two hours take another. 



CROUP. OO 

Relieve the bowels by injections or some mild laxative, as 
rhubarb. Then give plentifully of sweating teas — butter- 
fly root, ginger, and half a tea-spoonful of lobelia makes 
a good sweating tea ; good composition, balm, boneset, 
catnip or sage will do if the others cannot be had ; apply 
a poultice of slippery-elm and meal well boiled, sprink- 
led with pepper, or boiled in it, strong enough to redden 
the skin over the pain. Nauseate frequently, if the case 
is severe, with lobelia, either in tea or syrup. The but- 
terfly-root will slightly keep the bowels open. Take the 
steam bath once a day, or else bathe the feet often, and 
keep a warm brick or rock wrapped in damp cloths to 
them constantly. Roasted onions or garlic applied to 
the feet is good ; and if the pain is very severe, use them 
and apply the same over the pain. Butterfly-root in fine 
powder, with half the quantity of ginger, may be taken 
every two hours where there is much dry cough — about 
as much as will lie on the point of a penknife is a dose. 
It will aid the nauseating medicine to loosen and raise 
the phlegm, or as it is called, increase expectoration. 
This course of treatment may be relied upon if faithfully 
and properly carried out ; do not be discouraged or 
alarmed at its simplicity. Great show deceives the 
world. Remember the directions of the prophet to Naa- 
man, the Syrian general, for the cure of leprosy ; observe 
Naaman's view of it, and see the result — he washed and 
was made clean. Be careful for two or three weeks 
after the disease is broken up, as to eating and exercise, 
and avoid taking fresh cold. 

Croup. — This disease is sometimes very .'distressing 
and fatal to children. It is mostly the effect of cold and 



56 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

dampness ; some children have a greater predisposition 
to croup than others. It is characterized by a hoarse 
and peculiar cough. It sometimes attacks very suddenly, 
and the child is choked up or suffocated in a short time. 
This disease, above many others, requires puking, and 
that quickly, which gives almost instant momentary re- 
lief, and is sometimes permanent. Where the case is 
not very violent, apply snuff, or dried and pounded to- 
bacco (which must be much thinner than the snuff,) by 
greasing a piece of cloth with tallow, and then sprink- 
ling the snuff over it, and placing it on the child from 
the throat over the chest down to the pit of the stomach ; 
do not let it go too low, as it might in that case make the 
child very sick ; from a half to a full tea-spoonful of snuff 
is enough. This is applicable in mild cases. In violent 
attacks, give the tincture of lobelia in tea-spoonful doses 
every ten or fifteen minutes, until it pukes ; give it in 
warm tea or water. The compound preparation is best ; 
if it has continued to grow worse for some time, the 
lobelia in tea, syrup or the powders, mixed in warm 
water will do ; give ipecac, if you have not the lobelia ,* 
after puking, if the case is violent, keep the child nau- 
seated with broken doses of lobelia or the ipecac ; give 
sweating teas ; the spicewood tea is a good and palata- 
ble tea when sweetened ; ginger, balm, catnip, etc., are 
good sweating teas. Bathe the child in warm water 
wherein mullen has been boiled. If the case is obstinate, 
relieve the bowels by injections, prepared of spicewood, 
bayberry, or some other kind of tea, or warm water and 
milk ; put enough red pepper in it to make it effectual ; 
what would lie on the point of a penknife will do ; 
keep up perspiration or sweating ; keep the stomach 



QUINSY. 57 

slightly nauseated, and puke occasionally if necessary ; 
bathe in warm mullen water, relieve the bowels by injec- 
tions, and your child will almost always find relief. Cold, 
wet cloths applied to the throat, and overlaid with dry 
ones, has a very powerful influence in the outset of the 
case, where the powers of reaction can overcome the 
sedative influence of the cold water. 

Quinsy. — This, like the preceding, and many other 
forms of disease which attack organs that have a mucous 
membrane, is the effect of cold or dampness, or both. It 
usually attacks the feeble and infirm, who frequently 
have a predisposition to it. The tonsil glands are the 
seat of this disease. They swell and become dry, and 
the swelling is usually rapid, rendering it difficult to 
swallow. 

Treatment. — As this disease is developed from, or is 
the effect of debility or a debilitated state of these 
glands, the course of treatment is obvious ; powerful ex- 
citing stimulants are necessary to excite the glands to 
their proper action, whereby the swelling will be re- 
lieved and the feverish irritation allayed. Give the 
compound preparation of lobelia in warm teas or warm 
water, a tea-spoonful of the medicine to half a cupful 
of tea, repeated till it pukes ; give it every fifteen or 
twenty minutes. If the compound preparation is not at 
hand, make strong red pepper tea, and take lobelia in 
any form in it until it pukes. Make a poultice of slip- 
pery-elm, ginger and lobelia, and thickened with corn 
meal, well boiled, and apply warm to the throat ; over- 
lay it with three or four folds of cloth to prevent its 
3* 



58 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

drying ; gargle with the following : equal quantities of 
good apple vinegar, honey, good No. 6. Drink sweat- 
ing tea, with red pepper in it. If the swelling of the 
glands doesTiot abate (which it hardly fails to do), make 
a poultice of bear-grass root and the elm ; the root must 
be scraped or bruised fine ; apply as before. After a 
warm poultice has been applied, it is best to keep it 
warm till the swelling abates. If swallowing has be- 
come impossible, give lobelia by injections until puking 
is produced. Gargle and use every other practicable 
means to get the medicine to touch the glands. If the 
glands require to be opened, send for a skillful physi- 
cian ; this will rarely be the case where the compound 
preparation of lobelia can be swallowed. 

Sore Throat, Common and Putrid. — Common 
sore throat is the effect of colds, and the same treatment 
recommended for colds is applicable for sore throat ; 
but common sore throat may often be relieved by other 
treatment, washing the throat in cold water of a morn- 
ing when you wash your face will mostly relieve sore 
throat ; gargling with vinegar, honey and No. 6, is al- 
most infallible for the cure of eoinmou sore throat ; 
burnt and pounded red pepper, wrapped in thin cloth, 
held to the mouth and the strength inhaled by the breath 
is good. 

Putrid Sore Throat. — This disease is epidemi- 
cal and dangerous. In this disease the mouth, throat and 
fauces, must be kept cleansed of the putrid matter as it 
collects ; for this purpose wash, gargle, or swab the 
mouth and throat with a strong decoction of bayberry, 



MUMPS. 59 

white shumac and ginger, and drink a tea of the same ; 
or a wash of alum, sage and red pepper. The gargle of 
vinegar, honey and No. 6, ought to be used occasionally. 
A puke in the tea above recommended may be given 
with propriety, and sometimes it is very essential, espe- 
cially if the putrid matter gets into the stomach. The 
bayberry and shumac are peculiarly adapted to the cure 
of this form of disease, therefore a tea of this medicine 
ought to be used freely, with ginger or pepper enough 
in it to make it sweating ; excite perspiration, bathe the 
body in warm oak ooze, or warm water, which has 
had red or white oak bark boiled in it. Be constant 
and energetic in the treatment, but give no purgative 
medicines in this disease ; relieve the bowels by in- 
jections prepared of bayberry and shumac. 

M simps is a contagious or catching disease ; it is 
easily known by the swelling of the glands behind the 
angle of the jaws under the ears, and from a sharp pain 
being manifest on taking any thing sour in the mouth ; 
honey usually produces the same effect. In mild cases of 
mumps, little need be done except keeping out of the 
cold or damp air, and avoiding much exercise, especially 
riding on horseback ; and occasionally take some warm 
sweating teas as spice-wood, ginger, etc., and the swelled 
glands rubbed with a little sweet oil and No. 6, or cam- 
phor ; but if the case is a bad one, and becomes transla- 
ted to the privates or other parts, the patient must take 
his bed, promote perspiration and the general health, 
and apply a soft bandage to support the testes, and a 
poultice of slippery-elm and well boiled corn meal, or 
milk and light bread ; take a skin off a squirrel and 



60 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

inclose the testes in it, the hairy side out ; this is a good 
supporter. The bowels to be kept open by injections, 
broken doses of lobelia to keep the system relaxed ; 
puke occasionally if there is much fever. The compound 
lobelia pills taken at the rate of four or five daily, and 
drink spicewood tea ; Virginia snake-root tea, or other 
sweating teas, will usually be sufficient. 

Falling* of the Palate, or Elongated Uvula. — 
When the palate of the mouth falls, as it is commonly ex- 
pressed, take bayberry and red pepper pounded fine, about 
as much as will lie on a five cent piece, in three or four 
table-spoonfuls of cold water ; repeating two or three 
times daily for a few days, will usually cure this affec- 
tion. A strong tea of the same materials or strong com- 
position will sometimes be sufficient. 

Colic. — Colic is divided into three grades ; as wind 
colic, bilious colic and painter's colic. If it originates 
from a debilitated state of the stomach, it is usually 
termed wind colic ; if from vitiated bile, it is termed 
bilious colic ; if the primary cause is in the bowels, it 
is called dry belly-ache or painter's colic. This last 
affection is oftener produced from inhaling the fumes of 
the white lead which is in the paint, than any other 
cause. In any case of a severe attack of colic, of what- 
ever grade it may be, puking with the compound prepa- 
ration of lobelia will be found beneficial, though some- 
times it may be relieved without puking. A puke and 
an injection of the compound preparation of lobelia, 
given in composition or bayberry tea, will uniformly re- 
lieve wind colic. Lobelia pills will frequently relieve 



COLIC. 61 

it ; strong ginger tea and good spirits, will sometimes 
do ; a tea-spoonful of the compound preparation of lo- 
belia, in a half or two-thirds of a cup of tea, is a dose ; 
repeat if necessary in fifteen or twenty minutes ; the 
same quantity may be used in eight ounces of tea for an 
injection. 

In Bilious Colic, after puking and using the injection, 
give equal quantities of rhubarb and mandrake ; from 
fifteen to thirty grains each, is a dose ; or give castor oil 
till it opens the bowels. 

In Painter's Colic, after using the first mentioned re- 
medies, give castor oil until the bowels are moved, and 
keep them loose with castor oil or stimulating injections ; 
give at the same time a pill every two, three, or four 
hours, made of pounded red pepper and lobelia ; this is 
called the lobelia or compound lobelia pill. Painter's 
colic and bilious colic will require a day or two, and 
sometimes longer, before entire relief is obtained. 
Cramp colic, as it is called, is connected with either 
wind or bilious colic, hence the same treatment is re- 
quired. 

Either wind or bilious colic may often be removed by 
drinking freely of warm water, say from two to four 
half pints ; drink a half pint at a time, every twenty- 
five or thirty minutes. Let the water first be boiling 
hot and then cool, so as to drink freely. If the water is 
only warmed it will nauseate, and often puke before it 
dilutes the viscid and mucous or bilely secretions, which 
are the cause of the colic. By filling the stomach with 
warm water, these foul or viscid secretions are diluted, 



62 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

or made thin, arid will pass off without leaving soreness. 
When warm water is used, it should be resorted to in 
the early or incipient stages. Nevertheless, it may be 
used to great benefit three or four, or even six hours, 
after the colic pains have become severe. 

Dysentery. — This disease is often produced from 
foul matter in the stomach and bowels, which is generally 
of an acid character ; these impurities weaken, as well as 
irritate the stomach and bowels. The stools are fre- 
quent and watery, and often attended with griping 
pains, and the griping is usually proportionate to the 
quantity of acid in the bowels. Mucus and blood are 
often mixed with the matter discharged, and may be re- 
garded as an index or symptom of the irritation in the 
bowels. The disease is sometimes epidemical, that is, 
produced from unknown atmospherical causes, and ap- 
pears at irregular periods. 

Treatment. — It is good policy to give a puke in an 
early stage of the disease ; give the puke in bayberry 
and ginger tea, or in a tea made of the root, leaves, or 
the dust of berries of white shumac, with pepper or gin- 
ger in it, or in a tea of composition, a tea-spoonful of 
either of the powders, to a cup of boiling water, with 
half the quantity of ginger, or one-sixth of red pepper, 
forms a proper dose ; one, two or three doses will puke 
if a tea-spoonful of lobelia is added to each dose. The 
steam bath, or warm bathing, is of great utility in this 
disease ; use it throughout the whole course of the at- 
tack — once or twice a day is not too often ; give warm 
teas while in the bath. After the puke has been given, 






DYSENTEKY. 68 

or where no puke is given, take a table-spoonful of the 
neutralizing mixture every half hour, if the griping is 
very severe, until relief is obtained, or until eight or ten 
doses are taken ; if the griping is less severe, once every 
hour will do. (See Neutralizing Mixture.) Children 
will take less ; a child two years old, a tea-spoonful is a 
dose, repeated several times, from thirty to sixty minutes 
apart ; usually six or seven doses is sufficient for chil- 
dren. This cordial may be given three or four times 
daily, as long as the disease continues ; but nine times 
out of ten it will stop the complaint in one or two or 
three hours, if the disease is produced from acid alone. 
When the bowels are very tender to pressure, indicating 
high inflammation, make a poultice of well-boiled meal 
and slippery-elm, wet with No. 6, or sprinkle with pounded 
red pepper, and apply warm, and continued moist and 
warm, with warmth to the feet and buttocks (or nates) • 
drink a tea made of bayberry, shumac (the white is best) 
leaves, bark of the root, or berries and crane's-bill, mixed 
equal parts, and one-third ginger, or one-sixth pepper, a 
heaping tea-spoonful to a cup of boiling water ; drink 
about four drinks, from one to two hours apart ; a tea- 
spoonful of finely powdered charcoal and sifted through 
fine muslin or other gauze, may be added to a cup of this 
tea, and taken once in two days, (all teas must be sweet- 
ened well with loaf sugar.) Use daily or oftener an in- 
jection of sweet milk, sweet oil and slippery-elm mucil- 
age ; and occasionally use an injection of the tea spoken 
of as a drink, the injections should be about milk-warm ; 
if thirst is great, use slippery-elm water as a drink. The 
compound lobelia pill is a good remedy in mild cases of 
this disease. 



64 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Cholera-Morbus. — This disease is characterized 
by puking and purging ; it attacks suddenly and frequent- 
ly soon ends its course. Give strong composition tea, or 
No. 6, and if not relieved, puke with the compound prepa- 
ration of lobelia, bathe the feet and legs, and relief will 
frequently be as sudden as the attack came on. The 
neutralizing mixtures will give relief very speedily some- 
times. An injection of composition may be used with 
benefit. 

Diarrhoea. — This disease differs from dysentery, 
mostly in the discharges from the bowels being less fre- 
quent, less griping, and little or no blood, and the food 
passing undigested. It often becomes chronic, or of long 
standing, especially in persons of a nervous temperament. 
The neutralizing mixtures, taken three or four times 
daily, (See table, Neutralizing Mixture,) with about as 
many lobelia pills, is a good remedy in this disease ; a 
cordial made of the high-brier or dewberry-brier root is 
good ; boil the root strong, sweeten with loaf sugar, and* 
add one-fourth of good French or Cogniac brandy, from 
two to three table-spoonfuls is a dose. When the disease 
has become chronic, the stomach is weakened. Therefore 
let the stomach be restored to its wonted vigor, if possi- 
ble. The patient must be careful as to diet and exercise, 
and keep warm, dry feet ; friction with a flesh-brush or 
coarse towel over the region of the stomach and bowels 
is of great service ; rub night and morning. The ano- 
dyne drops have given relief, taken in tea-spoonful doses, 
in half a cup of tea, well sweetened, when other medi- 
cines would not. The lobelia pills, taken one after each 
meal, will strengthen the stomach. 



COSTIVENESS. — DYSPEPSIA. 65 

CostiTeness. — This affection should not be sought 
to be relieved by purgative medicines, for it is produced 
from a weakened state of the stomach and torpidity of 
the bowels, which cannot be cured by purgative medi- 
cines alone. The lobelia pills taken after meals, one or 
two at a time, is a good remedy. Charcoal pounded 
and sifted through fine gauze, taken in doses of a tea- 
spoonful in a cup of composition tea at night, will fre- 
quently remove costiveness. This, with proper dieting, 
will often cure it. The diet should be light, consisting 
of ripe fruit, (and better if well cooked,) wild game, rye 
mush, wheat flour unbolted and well cooked ; and regular 
exercise in moderation, and regular efforts at stool, once 
a day, ought to be observed. 

Dyspepsia. — A quarter of a century ago this disease 
prevailed to an alarming extent. Improper medication 
and improper habits doubtless have had their influence 
in producing the dyspepsia. The lobelia pill has proved 
a good remedy in dyspepsia, and I suppose it has relieved 
more cases during the time it has been in use, and to the 
extent it has been used, than any one single remedy. I 
can recommend it with confidence, as a safe and effica- 
cious remedy. Take a pill after eating, every day or 
every other day, as circumstances may require ; always 
take one when the food seems to oppress the stomach. 
The spice bitters, or some other preparation of bitters, 
may be used ; a teaspoonful of the spice bitters, in a cup 
of cold water of a morning, or before dinner, ought to 
be used. Light nourishing diet, deep, full breathing, 
moderate exercise in dry, pure air, and friction over the 
stomacli and liver, with the above course of treatment, 



66 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

will overcome most cases of dyspepsia. Mrs. Ezil, of 
Jasper county, Gra., daughter of John Jackson, of Henry 
county, Ga., can testify of the effects of this course of 
treatment. 

Worms, — Doubtless children are often troubled 
with worms. Their production is beclouded with much 
mystery, but when manifest, the stomach is found in a dis- 
ordered state, wherein is found much glairy, tough, slimy 
matter, connected with more or less acidity. In severe 
cases, attended with fever, they ought to be puked ; 
after which give one or two doses of neutralizing mix- 
ture, then give composition or bayberry and ginger tea, 
with a small portion of lobelia, say as much as will lie 
on a five-cent piece, once in three or four hours (lobelia 
ought to be given in broken doses as long as there is 
fever) ; after the fever is off, or in cases unattended with 
fever, give tansy, boiled in new milk, a handful of the 
tansy leaves to a half-pint or a pint of milk, to be taken 
in half-cupful doses several times a day. The seeds of 
Jerusalem oak, in tea-spoonful doses, taken in syrup or 
otherwise, is a good remedy. Mint, wetted and applied 
to the stomach, will sometimes give momentary relief ; a 
vermifuge compounded from the oil of Jerusalem oak, is 
a powerful medicine to expel worms. (See table, Worm 
Medicine or Vermifuge.) When the worms are expelled, 
give bitters or tonics, to prevent their return, common 
swamp-poplar bark, the root bark is the best, dried and 
pounded fine is good, very good to prevent the return or 
even attack of worms. Tansy and wormwood are also 
good ; common salt, a tea-spoouful dissolved in a few 
table-spoonfuls of water, taken once or twice a day, has 
been used with success in wormy children. 



PILES. RHEUMATISM. t) I 

. Piles. — This disease is the effect of a deranged state 
of the lower bowels ; in the early stage it can be fre- 
quently checked and sometimes cured by using injections 
made of witch-hazel, dewberry-brier root, and bayberry, 
made strong, injected, and retained for some time ; after 
the disease becomes chronic, sitting over the warm steam 
of mullen and regulating the diet, eating rye bread or 
mush, or wheat flour unbolted, has given relief in some 
very bad cases. When painful, the essence of peppermint 
is very good to give ease, and when made about twice as 
strong as usual, say five parts of alcohol to one part of 
the oil of peppermint, will sometimes cure, though this 
is very pungent or smarting ; use injections occasionally 
of some mild vegetable astringent teas. 

Rheumatism. — This is a very painful disease, 
brought on usually from sudden check of perspiration, or 
from cold and dampness after fatigue. It mostly affects 
the ligaments or grisly substance around the joints. The 
ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, shoulders and back are 
most frequently attacked, but it sometimes settles upon 
the muscles and the coatings of the eyes, etc. In rheu- 
matism, sweating is of primary importance, and the re- 
laxation of the muscles and ligaments, so as to admit 
free circulation, is almost indispensable in a complete 
cure of rheumatism. Lobelia, steam bathing aud sweat- 
ing medicines are the best means we can use to check 
and relieve rheumatism. Grive a puke in the outset of 
the case, then take lobelia pills, one every two hours, 
(see table, Lobelia Pills,) with composition, balm, catnip, 
or other kinds of sweating teas. Apply a poultice made 
of sweet potatoes, (or leaves,) boiled soft, thickened with 



08 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

a little meal ; it will usually give momentary relief. Slip- 
pery-elm and ginger, made into a poultice, with meal 
well boiled, or light bread and milk, made warm, are 
also good poultices. Take an ounce of camphor, dissolve 
in a pint of alcohol, to which add one and a-half ounces 
each of the oil of sassafras, the oil of cedar, the oil of 
hemlock, and of spirits of turpentine, shake till all is 
dissolved, then use as a liniment to the affected parts — 
this is a good liniment. 

To purify the blood take an ounce of the root bark of 
the gray-beard or white ash ; the same of the black co- 
hosh root (known as rattle root or weed,) and as much 
gum guiacum, pound fine and put in a quart of good gin ; 
take half a wine-glassful (or three or four table-spoon- 
fuls) three times a day. I have sometimes added an 
ounce of prickly-ash bark. Puke every two or three 
days ; give injections to relieve the bowels ; keep up 
perspiration with the lobelia pill and teas, and apply the 
poultices when the pain is very severe ; use the liniment 
and continue this course, and a cure may be expected in 
due time — say from two to ten weeks, mostly in two 
weeks. If the rheumatism is in the back and is chronic, 
a pill of soft turpentine, pepper and comfrey is remark- 
ably good ; take two or three times daily. 

Rheumatism in the back is called lumbago. The lini- 
ment above specified is very good, applied to the back ; 
a strengthening plaster is sometimes indispensable. As 
good a plaster, perhaps, as any, can be prepared from 
boiling pieces of fat pine roots, and spreading on thick 
cloths the oil or turpentine as it rises ; apply to the back 
and wear until it comes off. 



GRAVEL. — DIABETES. 69 

Gravel. — This disease is characterized by a pain in 
the kidneys, in and about the bladder, and the passages 
to and from the bladder, and down the insides of the 
thighs, with a partial or an entire stoppage of urine. 
The pain is sometimes very severe. Give lobelia to re- 
lax the system, and give the warm bath ; make a tea of 
the roots of the queen-of-the-meadow (a handful to a 
pint of water) with half or one-third the quantity of milk- 
weed root. Drink freely. A tea of uva ursa, water- 
melon seed tea, or parsley-root tea, or cotton-seed tea, 
is also good ; drink freely of either. Horse-mint tea 
is very good. Give injections of composition tea, with 
from one to two tea-spoonfuls of lobelia. The warm 
bath, and lobelia to relax, and the queen-of-the-meadow 
roots, and the milk-weed roots, and the use of the uva 
ursa also, has relieved many cases, and sometimes very 
promptly. Red onions and No. 6 has done good. 

©itiJiietes 5 Excessive Flow of Urine. — -This disease is 
brought on from a debilitated state of the system, espe- 
cially the urinary organs, as the kidneys, etc. Puking 
is recommended in this disease. The use of the white 
shumac is among the best remedies for diabetes. The 
berries, bark and leaves may be tinctured, or taken in tea. 
The dust of the berries may be taken in substance, from 
a half to a tea-spoonful ; an ounce to the pint in tincture ; 
one to two table-spoonfuls a dose, three times a day ; gin- 
ger added to the tea makes it better ; half a tea-spoon 
of ginger and a tea-spoonful of the powders to a cup of 
boiling water, sweetened with honey ; from one to three 
lobelia pills, taken daily, in combination with the tea, 
tincture or substance : the witch-hazel leaves, in equal 



70 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

quantities, is sometimes combined. Give injections of 
the tea of slmmac, as prepared to drink, only add 
about half a tea-spoon of ginger or one-eighth of cayenne 
pepper. The spice-bitters, in tea-spoonful doses, in a 
little water, may be taken before meals, twice a day. 
(See table, Spice-bitters.) 

Retention of Urine.— This disease is produced 
from different causes, as weakness of the urinary organs, 
stricture, etc. ; which last sometimes requires a surgical 
operation by a skillful operator. In the first cases give 
an injection of bayberry and ginger, with an equal quan- 
tity of lobelia ; a tea-spoon of each. Give the warm 
bath, and take a tea of the roots of the queen-of-the- 
meadow, a handful to a pint of boiling water, uva ursa, 
water-melon' seed tea, parsley-root tea, or tea of the 
cleavers, with a half tea-spoon of ginger added to each 
or either. Bathe as long as the patient is comfortable 
in the bath ; aii hour would not be too long, if the 
patient is agreeably situated. This treatment will seldom 
fail to give relief, if the obstruction is not produced from 
gravel or other mechanical causes, and sometimes when 
that is the case. 

Incontinence, or Want of Power to retain the 

Urine. — Children sometimes are unable to retain their 
water during the night. This defect usually gives way 
as they increase in strength. Give spice-bitters, in half 
tea-spoonful doses, with water enough to enable them to 
swallow it. This will strengthen the stomach and nerv- 
ous system. Give the tea of the dust of "the shuinac 
berries, a tea-spoonful to a cup of boiling water, (drink 



JAUNDICE. 71 

at night,) to strengthen the urinary organs. Take the 
bitters in the morning. Grown persons will take two or 
three times as much as children. Injections of the shu- 
mac are good. The cold shower-bath, in the morning, 
is strengthening in these cases. Friction to the abdomen 
and back, with a brush or coarse cloth, is beneficial. 

Jaundice. — This disease is usually produced from 
a disordered state of the liver, characterized by yellow- 
ness of the skin and whites of the eyes, a bad taste in 
the mouth, etc. Give a puke as soon as the disease 
manifests itself, and repeat every two or three days till 
broken up. After the puke give a dose of mandrake 
(may-apple) and rhubarb, from fifteen to twenty grains 
each ; give a lobelia pill after each meal ; drink compo- 
sition or some other sweating teas at night ; the third 
day give an injection of bayberry, ginger and lobelia, 
mix equal, and a heaping tea-spoonful, or a little more, 
of the compound to the quantity of water necessary for 
injection ; strain and use. Bathe the feet and legs well 
every night in weak lye or salt water — soda is as good 
as lye ; make the water slick with it ; repeat, if need 
be, the dose of the purgative medicine once in three or 
four days ; give it in broken doses, just enough to move 
the bowels once or twice. After the disease is checked, 
or a turn is taking place, give bitters ; poplar, bark of 
the root, white-ash or gray-beard, each about two ounces, 
one ounce prickly-ash (bark of the root), and dogwood 
may be added, mashed or scraped fine, and put to a quart 
of good gin or whiskey, taken in wine-glassful doses twice 
a day ; or the spice-bitters may be used, or four or five 
pills, made of equal parts quinine and red pepper, may 



72 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

be used. If the disease has been of long standing give 
steel dust or anvil scales, pounded fine, in tea-spoonful 
doses, in syrup or honey. Do not give any preparation 
of iron in combination with quinine, but with any others 
they may be used. Six or eight hours interval should 
be observed between the doses of iron and quinine. 

Apoplexy. — This affection is caused from conges- 
tion, or rush of blood upon the brain. It is always (for 
the whole nervous system is partially or wholly paralyzed) 
from the pressure of blood upon the brain, and if the 
circulation is not restored relief cannot be obtained. 
For this purpose, if the patient can swallow, give full 
doses of lobelia seed in tea ; if he cannot swallow, pour 
some of the compound preparation in his mouth, which 
will not strangle but excite swallowing. Give lobelia 
by injections, in tea, either of the leaves, seeds, or the com- 
pound preparation. Make a poultice of soft mush and 
sprinkle lobelia over it, and apply over the stomach ; 
this will relax the system, and restore the circulation, 
perhaps superior to any other medicine. Produce 
vomiting, if possible. Immerse the feet in water as 
warm as can be borne, not to scald. After the patient 
becomes conscious, remove the lobelia from the stomach. 
Two or three tea-spoonfuls of the compound preparation, 
in warm water or tea, is a proper quantity to be used at 
one time, to be repeated every few hours, if need be. 
The injections are of great importance ; they aid power- 
fully in equalizing the circulation, and determining the 
blood from the brain. Three or four tea-spoonfuls of 
lobelia, in strong red-pepper tea, will answer a good 
purpose, when the compound preparation of lobelia is 



PARALYSIS, OR PALSY. — EPILEPSY, OR FITS. 73 

not at hand. After the patient is relieved, give the lo- 
belia pills for some time, or until his health is recovered. 

Paralysis, or Palsy. — This affection is closely 
allied to, and is often produced from the same causes that 
produce apoplexy. It usually affects one side, but some- 
times it is confined to a limb. The affected part loses 
the power of motion, either wholly or partially, and 
sometimes sensibility also. Its seat is mostly confined 
to the spinal marrow or brain. In the outset of an at- 
tack use injections of the compound preparation, in tea- 
spoonful portions, either in tea or warm water. Give 
the steam bath, and afterwards puke ; rub the spine 
with No. 6 or some other strong preparation of pepper 
or mustard ; the second day give the steam bath again, 
and drink composition or take the lobelia pills while 
bathing, two or three a dose, afterwards shower down 
with cold water, rub dry, go to bed, put warm bricks to 
the feet and nates, and drink warm teas to produce 
sweating ; continue in bed two or three hours ; let the 
bricks be wrapped in damp cloths ; repeat this course 
until the patient gets better ; after an improvement takes 
place, give tonics, and take the lobelia pills after meals ; 
spice-bitters, quinine and lobelia made into pills, equal 
parts, poplar bark, dogwood bark, etc., are all good 
tonics, and either may be used to advantage. Wie diet 
should be light and nourishing ; wild game, as squirrels, 
rabbits, birds, etc., are the best ; eat moderately, and 
take exercise in the open dry air, either on horseback 
or in a carriage, as the strength of the patient can bear it. 

Epilepsy, or Fits. — This disease or disorder is 
4 



74 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

brought on by affections of the brain, spinal marrow, or 
from irritating causes in the stomach, etc. When it is 
brought on by an increase of a hardened substance press- 
ing on the brain or spinal marrow, a cure may hardly be 
expected, yet no one should fail to make a trial for re- 
lief. In this disease, as well as in apoplexy, puking with 
the compound preparation of lobelia is of first import- 
ance ; relaxation is an important consideration. Give 
injections of two or three tea-spoonfuls of lobelia, apply 
it to the stomach externally by means of a soft mush 
poultice, on which the lobelia can be spread ; the injec- 
tion may be repeated even three or four times in the 
day, if the fits continue ; give the warm bath to the feet 
and legs daily ; rub the spinal column with pepper, 
mustard, or No. 6 ; a puke may be given daily, or every 
few days, according to the frequency and severity of the 
attacks; bitters may be used after a few days. Fits in 
infants and young children are often brought on from op- 
pressions of the stomach, as overloading the stomach 
with indigestible food ; worms, and sometimes from teeth- 
ing. When it arises from teething, let the gums be cut 
down to the tooth or teeth ; it is proper, in all cases, to 
relax the system with lobelia, and where there is much 
fever, and the fits follow each other with rapid succes- 
sion, apply a soft poultice with lobelia spread on it over 
the region of the stomach ; give it by injections, and by 
the mouth ; a tea-spoonful administered by injection, and 
take half the quantity, or a little more, by the mouth ; 
this will rarely fail to give relief in one or two hours ; 
great relaxation is sometimes produced, but this is only 
an evidence of the entire giving way of the spasms, re- 
laxation and spasms being incompatible. As soon as 



HYSTERIA, OR HYSTERICS. 75 

this state of relaxation begins to be manifest, remove the 
poultice and lobelia from the stomach, and wipe the 
stomach clean. After the spasms are broken up let the 
lobelia be given in broken doses with ginger, what will 
lie on the point of a pocket-knife, and the same of ginger 
may be given every three, four, or five hours, in a little 
tea or water. Poplar bark bitters are good after the 
fever is off ; give in substance or tincture. Tansy, rue, 
or Peruvian bark, is also good. 

Hysteria, or Hysterics. — This affection is peculiar 
to females, but men of very nervous temperament, of a 
delicate frame, and of sedentary habits, are sometimes 
also subject to affections similar to the hysterics of 
women, but with men it is called hypochondria. It rarely, 
if ever, attacks children under fourteen years of age, or 
persons over fifty. In advanced age those who have been 
subject to its attacks frequently get the better of it. This 
affection is characterized by low-spiritedness, melancholy, 
superstition, and fanciful notions, and is not unfrequently 
attended with a peculiar spasm called hysterical fits. 
These fanciful imaginations seem to baffle solid reason. 

Treatment. — Until the spasms come on little else need 
be done but to take some mild tonics, nervines, or stimu- 
lants, devoid of narcotics. Narcotics may palliate for a 
moment, but will again strengthen the disease. The lo- 
belia pills, taken after meals, one at a time, and a cup of 
composition at night, in which a tea-spoonful of anodyne 
drops is combined, is a valuable remedy and almost a 
sure cure. When spasms come on give the compound 
preparation of lobelia and anodyne drops, a tea-spoonful 



76 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

each, in a cup of sage, balm, catnip, spice- wood, or pen-; 
ny-royal tea, repeated, if necessary, every three, four, or 
five hours ; bathe the feet in warm water, relieve the 
bowels by any simple injections. Tansy or penny-royal 
tea may be taken when the monthly courses are present. 

My poctiOEftdB'iasis., or Despondency. — This affec- 
tion is applied to men, and though similar to hysterics, is 
unattended with spasms. It is properly a state of melan- 
choly, brought on from nervous debility, by excesses in 
various ways, such as excessive use of tobacco, spirits, 
opium, debauchery, etc. While the mind is thus de- 
pressed it usually views the gloomy side of almost every 
subject or circumstance. The subject of this affection 
seems almost as though he took pleasure in seeing every- 
thing in this melancholy light, and it is hard to rouse 
him from it. In this case, as in hysterics, the treatment 
must be stimulants, tonics, and nervines, devoid of nar- 
cotics. The compound lobelia pill, after meals, is as good 
as any I have ever used. A dose of composition with a 
tea-spoonful of anodyne drops, if taken occasionally at 
night, with the pills, as above stated, cheerful company, 
and moderate exercise, will" almost always rouse from 
this state of despondency. A firm resolution to oppose 
these morbid feelings will conquer it. 

Faiilfiug", — This is mostly produced from want of 
arterial blood in the brain. When a person faints place 
the head a little below or at least upon a level with the 
body, dash a little cold water in the face, and apply some 
volatile smelling salts, as hartshorn, cologne, camphor or 
peppermint, to the nose. All tight dressing must be 



ST. VITUS S DANCE. — NEURALGIA. 77 

loosed to give free circulation to the blood. If a person 
faints in a crowded room or large assembly, let him be 
taken to the open cool air — do not let the crowd rush 
upon him or her, so as to shut out the fresh air ; if the 
weather be very warm, fanning will be beneficial ; a few 
drops of any of the smelling salts, anodyne drops, No. 6, 
or the compound preparation, may be given in a suitable 
quantity of water. 

St. Vitus's S>aatee. — This complaint usually at- 
tacks persons under puberty or before manhood, say from 
about the ninth to about the twentieth year of age, and 
mostly from the twelfth to the sixteenth year. It is 
characterized by twitching of the muscles or limbs, and 
sometimes prevents their proper movements, the person 
being unable to guide his hand to his mouth, or to place 
his feet or hands where he wishes, or to hold them 
still unless placed upon some object or solid substance, 
thereby rendering his gestures awkward and unpleasant. 

Treatment— The cold shower-bath of a morning, rub 
dry, and then rub along the spine with No. 6, in which 
camphor has been dissolved, an ounce to the pint, to 
which add an ounce of the oil of cedar, sassafras, or 
hemlock, or rub with the compound preparation of lobe- 
lia ; give bitters, as spice-bitters, poplar and prickly-ash 
barks, strongly tinctured, or quinine and red pepper, equal 
parts, made into pills, and from one to three to be taken 
before meals, and the lobelia pills taken after meals, one 
at a time. Gentle exercise, and light and nourishing 
diet : wild game, as rabbits, squirrels, birds, etc., is good. 

Neuralgia. — This disease is manifest by severe 



78 A (JUIDE TO HEALTH. 

pain along a nerve, the real cause of which is frequently- 
situated in a part of the body distant from the apparent 
location of the pain ; a diseased tooth will cause neu- 
ralgia in the face ; a disease in the womb may produce 
pain in the stomach or elsewhere ; a disease of the spine 
may produce pain in a limb, etc., etc. Neuralgia is, 
perhaps, oftener located in the face or some part of the 
head than elsewhere, yet it may attack the body at al- 
most any part. The pains are sometimes very severe 
and of short duration, and frequently return at short 
intervals, at regular, but sometimes irregular, periods. 
In very severe cases give emetics to cleanse the stomach, 
and sweating medicines, as ginger, composition, Virginia 
or black-snake root tea, etc. ; give broken doses of lo- 
belia to relax the system, and tonics and stimulants to 
aid free circulation, as spice-bitters and the lobelia pills. 
If the returns are periodical, give fifteen or twenty 
grains of quinine, an equal quantity of red pepper and 
nearly as much brown lobelia (which is the seed pow- 
dered) ; anoint the affected part with the compound pre- 
paration of lobelia and camphor dissolved in it (an ounce 
to the pint), or with a strong essence of peppermint. 
The vapor bath is of great benefit in this disease. While 
bathing drink freely of some sweating tea, as ginger, com- 
position, etc. When the disease is in the lower part of the 
spine, kidneys or womb, injections to relieve the bowels 
are preferable to cathartics. When you wish merely to 
relieve the bowels give rhubarb and black-root, either 
single or combined, but when the liver is to be acted 
upon give mandrake and red pepper ; salt and good 
brandy, made strong, is good to anoint with, and drink in 
some cases of neuralgia. 



DROPSY. 79 

Dropsy. — This disease is manifest by a collection 
of a watery-like fluid in some parts of the system. It is 
divided into five different heads or grades of dropsy, 
which are : Ascites, when the fluid collects in the abdo- 
men ; Hydrothorax, when it collects in the chest ; 
Anasarca, when it collects in the cellular tissues, and 
is a general swelling ; Hydrocephalus, when the fluid 
collects upon the brain or in the head ; Hydrocele, when 
it collects in the scrotum. But as all these cases require 
a great deal of skill and sometimes a long course of treat- 
ment, I shall only speak of the most prudent means 
which will relieve and frequently put a stop to anasarca, 
or general swelling ; the others ought to fall into skillful 
hands, who ought to be eye-witnesses of their progress. 
When swelling of the feet and legs takes place, which, 
when pressed upon with the finger or thumb, leaves a 
pit or sunken place, if the tongue be pale or furred, 
or other symptoms of a disordered stomach, let the pa- 
tient be puked with lobelia in strong composition tea ; 
in four or five hours take from fifteen to twenty grains 
of mandrake and red pepper, or at least enough to pro- 
duce a tolerably free discharge ; bathe the feet and legs 
well in warm water made strong with salt, then take two 
parts of the fibrous roots of the queen-of-the-meadow 
and one part (or half as much) of the roots of the milk- 
weed, bruised fine ; take a table-spoonful of this compound 
and a tea-spoonful of ginger, and put to a pint of boil- 
ing water ; when nearly cool, strain and sweeten with 
honey or loaf sugar, and drink freely from one to two 
pints a day ; take through the day and night from six 
to eight or ten lobelia pills ; divide the time about equal ; 
give the tincture of poplar bark, in good gin, about as 



80 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

strong as it can well be made, say three or four ounces 
of the bark, well bruised, to the quart of spirits ; of this 
take a wine-glassful, for a grown person, two or three 
times a day ; in some cases quinine may be substituted or 
alternated for the poplar-bark bitters, taken in four or 
five grain doses three times a day. After the swelling- 
has been reduced give steel dust and unicorn root, equal 
quantities of each, a tea-spoonful a dose, twice a day ; 
anvil scales or carbonate of iron, double the quantities, 
is about equal to the steel dust. (Do not give quinine 
the same day you give any preparation of iron.) Use 
stimulating injections three times a week, or oftener ; a 
tea-spoonful of No. 6, or a little less of the compound 
preparation of lobelia to a cup of composition or bay- 
berry tea, makes an injection stimulating enough in 
ordinary cases. If it is supposed the liver is connected, 
or has any direct influence upon the disease, give ten or 
fifteen grains of mandrake, with half the quantity of red 
pepper, once a week ; this last had better be taken half 
at night and the other half in the morning after. If 
this course does not relieve in four or five weeks or less 
time, call in a skillful doctor, as you may be sure the dis- 
ease is complicated with some important organ, hence its 
particular symptoms ought to be observed by an eye- 
witness capable to judge of the various causes and con- 
nections. 

Scrofula, drlaiMleilnr Swellings, etc. — A 

scrofulons habit is mostly constitutional, yet striking ap- 
pearances of scrofula may be manifest in a child of 
sound constitution otherwise. Unsound food, impropri- 
eties in eating trash, over exercise, taking cold, etc., 



DROWNING. 81 

may produce symptoms similar to scrofula. When 
scrofula or glandular swellings manifests itself about the 
head or neck, let the child commence the use of suitable 
alteratives. A strong tea of bayberry and ginger is to 
be given, to which a portion of lobelia should be added, 
barely enough to nauseate ; let this be taken night and 
morning ; dose, tea-spoonful of bayberry and half the 
amount ginger, and about one-eighth lobelia to a half 
pint boiling water ; take half at night, the remainder in 
the morning ; take a lobelia pill after dinner ; if this 
does not cause the swelling to abate or lessen in a few 
days drink a tea made by steeping a handful of the 
sarsaparilla roots, one-half the quantity each of burdock 
and narrow-dock roots, all bruised, and put in a pint of 
boiling water ; let it remain as near the fire as it can, 
not to boil, for three or four hours, (put into a stone or 
earthen vessel,) which, after it cools, is to be drank in 
divided portions during the day. Anoint the swelled 
glands or places with the compound preparation of lobe- 
lia or strong salt and water. If the swelling appears 
to collect matter and it is desirable to bring it to a head, 
apply a poultice of slippery-elm and meal, well boiled, 
with ginger in it, a tea-spoonful of ginger to four or five 
table-spoonfuls of meal or bayberry, meal and ginger. 
Before applying the poultice anoint or wet the swelled 
place with No. 6, or as recommended before. An ex- 
cellent liniment is made by simmering the scraped roots 
of the common prickly-ash in butter ; anoint with it 
once or twice a day. 

S&r© wiling*, Suspension of Life from thai Cause. — 
When a person has been taken out of the water and 
4* 



82 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

there is any hope that life may be resuscitated or 
restored, rub dry and wrap up warm, and give stimulat- 
ing injections ; one or two, or even three or four table- 
spoonfuls of the compound preparation of lobelia, in a 
suitable quantity of warm water, may be used by injec- 
tions, and repeated if necessary ; if the compound pre- 
paration cannot be had, use strong pepper tea or No. 6. 
If the same, but not quite so strong, could be introduced 
into the stomach by means of a stomach tube, it ought 
to be done. The limbs of the patient ought to be 
rubbed with the open hand or with cloths slightly warm ; 
external heat must be applied with great caution and 
slowly. As soon as the patient can swallow give stimu- 
lants, such as pepper or ginger tea, made strong, No. 6, 
or the compound preparation, which is most preferable ; 
a tea-spoonful in warm water is a dose ; two or three 
doses may be taken. Nourishing diet, such as soups, 
may be given as soon as it can be taken. 

Lightning*) Suspension of Life from. — Dash buckets- 
ful of cold water in the face and breast if there is no 
breathing ; if the person breathe, care must be taken not 
to strangle. Give stimulating injections of pepper tea, 
made strong, No. 6, or the compound preparation of lo- 
belia, in water nearly or quite cold, to be repeated several 
times if necessary ; the limbs may be rubbed and wet 
cloths applied. 

Sore Eyes. — There are several species or grades of 
sore eyes, Sore eyes from cold ought not, in most cases, 
to have cold applications applied to them. Luke warm 
water and sweet milk make a good wash in such cases ; 



STY. 88 

if the inflammation is very high and the eyes very pain- 
ful, a poultice made of finely powdered slippery-elm, in 
tepid water, or milk and water, will usually give relief. 
The alum curd is a good remedy, applied nearly cold. 
(Rub a lump of alum in the white of an egg until it 
curdles.) A mucilage of the pith of sassafras is very 
good. First make a very weak solution of the com- 
pound preparation, a drop to a tea-spoonful of water, wet 
the eyes with this, and then apply the mucilage of sassa- 
fras ; repeat several times a day, and wash at night and 
morning with tepid water and milk ; this will relieve 
most cases of sore eyes. If the sore eyes are of the 
scrofulous character, that is, arising from an impure state 
of the blood, let the person use sarsaparilla and white-ash 
(or gray-beard, as it is called) ; an ounce of the bruised 
roots of the first and half the quantity of the root bark 
of the ash, steeped six hours in a pint of boiling water, 
drank daily for several days or even weeks, will 
purify the blood and aid largely in the cure of sore eyes 
of this character. Wash the eyes with the preparation, 
as above directed, only make the solution of the com- 
pound preparation stronger. The narrow-dock root 
makes a good wash in this case : make a tea of the roots. 
It may also be drank in lieu of sarsaparilla. 

Sty. — This is an abscess or a little boil on the edge 
of the eyelid. It frequently may be cured by pulling 
out the eyelash that is in it. A poultice of slippery-elm 
is very good, or light bread and sweet milk. There is 
another kind of disease or rising which takes place in 
the eyelid, which is lower down or further from the edge 
of the eyelid ; it is slower in its approach and much 



84 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

harder to cure. Instead of pus it contains a matter re- 
sembling honey. There seems to lack vitality to bring 
it to a head. Anoint the part with the compound pre- 
paration of lobelia, keeping the eye closed to prevent the 
liquid from entering it, (this will require care,) and then 
apply a slippery-elm poultice. This treatment has re- 
lieved two cases in my hands ; one without any surgical 
operation, the other after the knife had been used with- 
out success. 

Mental Derangement, Insanity. — This is a 
deranged state of the brain. Several causes are spoken of 
as producing mental derangement : as deep and close 
study, disappointed love, sudden frights, jealousy, etc 
Whatever determines the blood to the brain in undue 
proportions, or irregular flow of blood to the brain, weak- 
ens the nervous energy, and may thereby produce fatal 
derangement of the brain, and in its sympathetic connec- 
tion weaken other organs, as the stomach, liver, etc., 
which may again augment the insanity. This disease is 
sometimes months after its appearance before it fully 
develops itself; but after it is fully developed, and con- 
tinues over two or three years, the chances for recovery 
are very doubtful. Indeed, medical men have almost 
abandoned the use of medicine in this disease, relying 
more on the change of situation and company than any- 
thing else ; yet, doubtless, cases have occurred that have 
been benefited by medicines early applied. Therefore 
cleanse the stomach and relax the system by giving lobe- 
lia emetics, then give strengthening anodynes and tonics, 
the anodyne drops in tea-spoonful doses two or three 
three times daily ; lobelia pills, one or two after each 



MENTAL DERANGEMENT. 85 

meal, and bitters, if the liver and stomach have become 
much deranged, spice bitters, a tea-spoonful of the pow- 
ders to a cup of water taken in the morning daily ; the 
sculcap, poplar, or other bitters may be used ; divert 
the mind as much as possible from the cause of its op- 
pression ; bathe the feet and give stimulating injections 
with lobelia in them. The object is to draw the flow of 
blood from the brain and keep the system relaxed to 
favor equalized circulation. 

That state of craziness produced from excessive drink- 
ing, called mania-a-potu, is much more manageable and 
less dangerous than that above mentioned ; mental de- 
rangement from drink has frequently been relieved in a 
few days ; a person laboring under this derangement 
ought not to be abruptly crossed or forced to anything, 
unless it be to prevent him from doing harm to himself 
or some one else. 

The treatment must be similar to the above-mentioned : 
bathe the feet in warm water ; give an emetic ; give the 
anodyne drops or composition ; give stimulating injec- 
tions ; and after the case is relieved, to break up the 
morbid desire for spirits, give daily, or two or three 
times a day, as the case may require, a tea-spoonful of the 
anodyne drops in a cup of composition, or other pure 
stimulants, as No. 6, in tea or warm water well sweet- 
ened. But do not use, either in the cure of the disorder 
or to prevent it, but very little if any ardent spirits, and 
if used at all, let it be diluted and well sweetened. Ano- 
dynes without any narcotics, pure stimulants and tonics 
are the best remedies and the best preventives in this 
case. After puking, and bathing the feet, give a tea- 
spoonful of the anodyne drops in composition or ginger 



86 



A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 



tea, and get, if possible, the patient to sleep ; after a few- 
hours sound sleep, the recovery may be anticipated. 

Headache.— Headache is often the effect of nervous 
debility and acidity of the stomach. It may frequently 
be relieved by applying the essence of peppermint and 
holding it to the forehead and temples with the open 
hands three or four minutes, to prevent its too sudden 
evaporation ; afterwards rub the forehead towards the 
temples with the hands. When the headache is accom- 
panied with sickness of the stomach, let the means above 
mentioned be used, and if relief is not obtained, bathe 
the feet in warm lye-water, and take two or three lobe- 
lia pills ; this will seldom ever fail to give relief; some- 
times one pill will do. The use of composition and 
lobelia pills has broken up many cases of periodical 
attacks of sick headache under my knowledge j as this 
affection is so harassing to many persons, let none fail to 
try the remedy who hears of it. 

Toothache. — This tormenting complaint is pro- 
duced from (one of) various causes, or a combination of 
causes, such as a foul stomach, nervous derangement, etc. 
In almost all cases the tooth has some defect. From the 
pain, most persons are induced to have the tooth pulled 
out, and in some cases the course is proper ; but if the 
tooth can be saved, let it be saved ; if possible, have it 
plugged with gold foil by a skillful and an honest den- 
tist. To give momentary relief, take a tea-spoonful of 
the compound preparation of lobelia in a cup of sage, 
ginger, catnip tea ; apply cotton dipped in the same to 
the cavity of the tooth, or the oil of cloves, and bathe the 



EARACHE. — PALPITATION. 87 

feet in warm water. If the jaw or face is pained, hold 
it over hot steam of bitter herbs, as tansy, hoarhound, 
featherfew, etc. But if the tooth cannot be saved by 
plugging, nor relief obtained without using some corro- 
sive poison, let it be drawn. 

Ear-ache. — This is a very painful affection, mostly 
produced from cold 01 some other depressing cause. It 
is confined mostly to early life. The wax, which in health 
exudes from the ear, is either perverted in its secretion 
or else hardens after it does secrete, and thus presses 
the nerves of the ear, which sometimes produces inflam- 
mation. Insects and other substances get in the ear 
sometimes and produce pain. If any living bug or insect 
gets in the ear, let the person lie with that ear up and 
pour in sweet oil : the insect will rise to the top of the 
oil, when it may be removed. If it is produced from 
cold or hardened wax, mix sweet oil and the compound 
preparation of lobelia and drop one or two drops in the 
ear, or dip soft wool or cotton in the mixture and put it 
in the ear ; syringe the ear or wash it out with cas tile- 
soap suds or sweet milk and water ; let it be a little 
warm. If this does not relieve, and matter is evidently 
accumulating, steam the ear over bitter herbs or pine 
tops, (the tender leaves,) and apply a slippery-elm poul- 
tice ; after matter begins to be discharged, still syringe 
the ear with castile-soap suds or milk and water ; all 
applications to the ear must be pleasantly warm, about 
blood heat ; keep the feet dry. 

Palpitation, or Irregular Beating of the Heart. — 
This is often the effect of a disordered state of the stom- 



88 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

acli and bowels, or other sensitive organs. Give a puke, 
bathe the feet and legs, take a cup of composition tea at 
night, and a lobelia pill after eating, and use friction to 
the body with a flesh-brush or a coarse towel, and espe- 
cially over the region of the liver ; take light diet and 
moderate exercise. The anodyne drops in tea-spoonful 
doses, and bitters may also be used if the case is of long 
standing — the drops at night and bitters of a morning. 
The heart is subject to a functional derangement. In a 
derangement of this character, the advice and aid of a 
skillful physician ought to be had. 

Bleeding from the Iiiings.— This affection 
may occur from several causes, as tubercles in the lungs, 
from depressions* produced from cold, dampness, etc. It 
may sometimes arise from a weakened state of the blood- 
vessels from excessive drinking. It does not usually 
prove fatal at the outset, yet it is the foundation or fore- 
runner of fatal consequences very frequently. Bleeding 
from the lungs may be checked by puking and taking 
beth-root, witch hazel and ginger tea — a tea-spoonful of 
each (dried and pounded) to half a pint boiling water, 
steeped till cool and drank at three drinks, thirty min- 
utes apart ; one or two doses is usually sufficient ; bathe 
the feet in water as warm as can be borne. When this 
malady arises from any other cause than tubercles of 
the lungs, with strict care to avoid the influence of the 
cause, a cure may be effected. With pure stimulants, 
devoid of any narcotics, gentle or moderate exercise, 
nourishing diet taken temperately, and the avoidance of 
sudden changes of weather and dampness, and daily fric- 
tion to the body, and deep and full breathing taken oc- 



BLEEDING FROM THE NOSE. 89 

casionally, the fatal symptoms may be warded off, if not 
prevented. 

Bleeding 1 from the Nose. — When this occurs 
in the young and healthy, it very rarely proves danger- 
ous ; but when it takes place with the aged and infirm, 
it sometimes proves fatal, or lays the foundation for fatal 
effects : a cup of composition tea, or sage and ginger tea, 
and at the same time immerse the feet in warm water, 
applying cold water to the face and temples, will usually 
stop bleeding from the nose ; holding up the left hand 
so as for the column of blood from the arm to press upon 
the arch of the large blood-vessel that proceeds imme- 
diately from the heart to the head will sometimes stop 
it ; if bleeding from the nose is produced from feebleness, 
use witch hazel or beth-root freely in the composition or 
other teas, and snuff or fill the nostrils with one or the 
other up to where the blood oozes out ; persevere in this 
course of treatment, and success will almost always 
crown your labors. 

Bleeding from Wounds.— If an artery or 
vein is cut on the fingers or toes, the cut vessel need not 
be tied in ordinary cases ; to close up the place, apply 
some semi-mucilaginous absolvent, as witch hazel or beth- 
root and one-half or one-third of slippery-elm, comfrey 
and sugar, or even corn-meal or ashes, and bind suffi- 
ciently tight to stop the current of blood until nature 
can plug up the cut vessel. If it is cut high up the 
limb, let the vein or artery be tied, if any person is pres- 
ent who can do it ; if no one is present who can tie it, 
make a compress of several folds of cloth, and if an ar- 



90 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

tery be cut, press firmly on the inside of the arm or leg 
above the cut in several places, until you find, by press- 
ing, the blood is checked in its flow or squirt ; there ap- 
ply the compress sufficiently tight to stop the main cur- 
rent of blood ; let it remain on for several days, it may 
be loosened after a few days, slightly, so as to see if the 
blood will run, keeping the arm or leg elevated at the 
same time. If a vein be cut, pursue the same course, only 
apply the compress below the cut. If the cut is high up 
the arm or leg and an artery is cut, draw a bandage 
very tight around the limb above the cut, (if the artery 
is easily found, put a compress over it ;) but if it be a 
vein, then bandage below the cut ; (the blood from a vein 
flows regular ; but from an artery, it flows in squirts ;) 
if a vein and artery both be cut, then apply the bandage 
above and below the cut, and send in haste for a skillful 
doctor. After the bleeding is checked, apply salve to 
heal the wound. 

Bleeding from the Stomach. — If a person 
pukes up blood instead of spitting it out, you may know 
it is from the stomach and not from the lungs. The 
treatment requires a puke of lobelia to free the stomach 
of its foul contents, and then give a strong tea made of 
a tea-spoonful each, bayberry, witch hazel and beth-root, 
to half a pint boiling water, adding the same of ginger, 
or one-fourth of pepper, or a tea-spoonful of good No. 6, or 
half a tea-spoonful of the compound preparation of lobe- 
lia ; a half of a cupful of this tea, when cool, may be 
taken every hour, or less time, until the bleeding is 
stopped. Either one of the above astringents may be 
used when the others cannot be had, combining the stimu- 



CANCER. — SPRAINS. 91 

lants with it as above mentioned. Shumac or sage may 
be used, combined with either or any of the above 
astringents, or alone, when the others cannot be had. 
Use composition and the lobelia pills for several days, 
a teacup of the composition tea and three or four pills 
daily will be sufficient. 

Cancer. — Cancer, in its proper meaning, is one of 
those unmanageable cases that needs but directions 
here. However, there are many ulcers which take the 
name cancer that are curable, but there is a species 
(which, perhaps, alone ought to bear the name of can- 
cer) which is almost always made worse by applying 
any kind of corrosive or escharotic preparations ; hence 
it would be better, in my judgment, to let the complaint 
move on slowly, than to aggravate it by applying any 
kind of corrosives. If a person has a rough, ugly, dry 
scab or scaly protuberance on the face or nose, let him 
wet it with his spittle in the morning before he eats or 
drinks, or puts anything in his mouth. I am not able to 
account for the beneficial influence of this remedy, but 
there is a neutralizing property about it that will cause 
the dry scab to peal off and prevent its accumulating ; 
this has been the result in several cases that have come 
under my knowledge. The remedy is empirical. If an 
ugly, unpleasant sore arises on the face or elsewhere, so 
that an application can be made, apply a salve of rancid 
or musty bacon-rind and fine salt, or the yelk of an egg 
and fine salt. I apprehend this will not aggravate, and 
each has done some good. 

Sprains. — When a joint has been sprained, pour 



92 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

cold water on it two or three times in the course of one 
or two hours ; this will prevent too great a flow of blood 
to the broken ligaments ; then apply No. 6, or spirits in 
which gum camphor has been dissolved, vinegar, or some 
volatile liniment, and bandage tolerably tight, but not 
tight enough to prevent a proper circulation of blood. 
If the wrist joint is badly sprained, splints ought to be 
used ; first wrap a smooth bandage of cloth, then apply 
the splints, so as to keep the hand secure from motion ; 
a splint or splints ought to extend to the end of the fin- 
gers and back to the elbow ; keep the place moist with 
No. 6 or camphor. 

§toiae-tn 8 Bii§e.— When pain is felt in the heel or 
ball of the foot, supposed to originate from a bruise, com- 
monly called a stone-bruise, let it be steamed over bitter 
herbs or pine-tops, from a half an hour to an hour, then 
apply some stimulating volatile liniment, as No. 6, com- 
pound preparation of lobelia, camphor, etc., and repeat 
it several times in the course of two or three days. If 
this does not stop it, apply a poultice composed of the 
inner bark of the root of dogwood and corn meal ; the 
oak bark, agrimony, or wormwood poultice is very good, 
either of which will favor its coming to a head, as it is 
called. 

When matter is sufficiently collected, let it be opened 
with a lancet ; after the matter is discharged, continue 
to poultice it with slippery-elm, red oak bark, light bread 
and milk, or some other soft emollient poultice. Wetting 
the place with No. 6 will also favor its discharging. 
When it has done discharging matter, apply salve to heal 
it up. 



SEVERE BRUISES. — WOUNDS ON THE HEAD. 93 

Severe Bruiges, occasioned from falls, kick of a 
horse, blows, or from any other cause whatever, so as 
to stun vitality, rendering the vital powers scarcely able 
to react, give stimulating injections, one or two tea- 
spoonfuls of the compound preparation of lobelia, or No. 
6 in warm water, and in case where neither is at hand, 
pepper or ginger tea may be used. When animation or 
life seems to be restored, give pure stimulants internally, 
as pepper tea, composition, or ginger tea, with enough 
lobelia to keep the stomach slightly nauseated. The ob- 
ject of this relaxation is to favor circulation and still keep 
down a raging fever. If a hearty meal had been taken 
two hours before the time the shock was received, give 
a puke of lobelia or ipecac to free the stomach of its con- 
tents, as digestion cannot be carried on to much extent 
when the vital powers are thus weakened ; give stimu- 
lating teas to favor perspiration, as balm or catnip tea, 
etc. Apply No. 6 over the bruised part, the compound 
preparation of lobelia, camphor or opodeldoc. Bathe 
the feet in warm water to aid perspiration. If the flesh 
is severely bruised, and the skin not broken, apply slip- 
pery-elm pounded fine, moistened with No. 6, or camphor, 
or some other emollient poultice. The stimulants and 
soft poultices will aid the capillary blood-vessels to re- 
store vigor and life to the diseased part. 

Wounds on the Mead, — If the skin be cut, shave 
off the hair, and draw the edges together without any 
hair being between, if possible, and apply comfrey root, 
scraped or bruised fine, and brown sugar, wet with 
No. 6 or camphor ; bandage it and let the bandage re- 
main four or five days. Do not stitch a cut on the head. 



94 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Lint laid on the wound without anything else but the 
bandage will do in many cases. If the wound is very 
severe, stimulating injections and sweating teas, nause- 
ating doses of lobelia will be advisable for the general 
health and restoring process. 

Cuts, Wounds, etc. — In all cases of flesh 
wounds, whether they are cut, torn, bruised or punc- 
tured, as they are termed, they must be cleansed of for- 
eign substances, if any there be, by washing or other- 
wise, then their edges drawn together as nearly natural 
as possible, and then the dressing and bandage applied. 
If the wound is made by an iron instrument, or any other 
hard and smooth substance, as a cow's horn, etc., aad 
there has been no chance for dirt or other foreign sub- 
stance to get in the wound, there need be no effort to 
cleanse, except it be necessary to remove clotted blood. 
When it can be done without, the less washing the bet- 
ter. When a large vein or artery is cut, it must be 
closed up either by tying, compress or plastic lymph. 
Let the artery be pressed or tied above the cut, and the 
vein below it. The blood must be checked or nearly 
stopped before the edges are drawn together and the 
dressing applied. If a cut or wound is below the wrist 
or ankle, the blood may usually be stopped by compress. 
If it is above these joints, the blood-vessels had better be 
tied, in which case, call in a skillful doctor, if possible, 
and to prevent fatal consequences from bleeding before 
a doctor can be had, press on the inside of the leg or 
arm with the thumb, with considerable force in several 
places, until you find the place where the blood is check- 
ed by pressing. When you have ascertained the place, 



CUTS, WOUNDS, ETC. 95 

there apply your compress sufficiently tight to prevent 
fatal bleeding. If the blood flows regularly, it is a vein 
that is cut, if in squirts, it is an artery ; sometimes a 
vein and artery are both cut, in that case apply pressure 
above and below. If you cannot ascertain without too 
much delay, the proper place for the compress (which 
is made by forming a pad of several folds of cloth, and 
then bandaging tightly), tie a silk handkerchief or 
strong towel loosely round the arm or leg, then take a 
smooth, strong stick and run it through the loop, and 
twist it until the blood ceases to flow in a dangerous 
manner. After you are ready for dressing the wound, 
if it be deep, pour into it some No. 0, then draw the 
edges together, and if need be, take a stich or stiches 
with a needle and thread, or hold the edges together 
with adhesive plaster ; if adhesive plaster is used, and 
the wound is large or deep, do not cover it entirely 
with the plaster, but leave space for the matter to exude 
or run out ; apply lint wet with No. 6 or spirits of tur- 
pentine to the wound where it is not covered with adhe- 
sive plaster ; do not remove the dressing for several 
days unless some bad symptom demands it. If the pa- 
tient is feeble, and the tongue indicates a foul stomach, 
give a light emetic ; keep the bowels open by injections ; 
give sweating teas, enough to keep the skin moist ; if 
feverish, give broken doses of lobelia in the tea, enough 
to nauseate the stomach ; bathing the feet is beneficial. 
When the edges of the wound can be kept together 
without adhesive plaster, comfrey, brown sugar and No. 
6 enough to moisten them make an invaluable remedy 
for bruises and cuts. 



96 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Wounds or Cuts in Joints. — Where there is 
a cut or wound about a joint, and especially if it is a large 
joint, as the knee, or ankle, or wrist, let the parts be 
closed as soon as possible, to prevent as much as can be 
done the air from getting into it. Apply lint dry, and 
bandage tolerably tight. If the joint is cut so as to let 
the liquid matter or oil of the joint escape, let the band- 
age extend along the limb to the joint above, so as to 
prevent, if possible, the contraction of the muscles ; pour 
No. 6 or the tincture of myrrh over the cut place on 
the lint ; apply a splint to prevent motion in the joint. 
The diet should be light, and the bowels relieved by in- 
jections. If fever occurs, give broken doses of lobelia. 
Do not remove the bandage, unless symptoms demand 
it, until the parts are healed or nearly so. If swelling 
makes it necessary, loose the bandage slightly ; drink 
slippery-elm water when feverish. If the cut has not 
reached the membrane that holds the oil or liquid of the 
joint, all that will be necessary, in most cases, is to close 
the parts, and apply comfrey and brown sugar wet with 
No. 6, and bandage. In young and healthy persons, 
this will cause it to heal in a very short time ; do not 
remove it, but wet the place occasionally with No. 6. 

Scalds aasd 11 urns. — When a person is burned 
or scalded, but not so severely as to take off or crisp the 
skin, apply cold water, which is the best convenient 
remedy that can be used ; continue the cold water or 
wet cloths until the pain of the fire ceases ; if it blisters, 
apply cotton wet in sweet oil, or hog's foot oil ; don't 
cut the blisters until the new or young skin is formed 
underneath ; but if the burn is so severe as to crisp or 



FROZEN LIMBS. 97 

take off the skin, apply as soon as possible sweet oil and 
No. 6, or sweet oil and spirits of turpentine ; cover it 
with carded cotton. Slippery-elm moistened in No. 6 
may be applied before the cotton, but do not omit the 
oil. In all severe burns the vital or living principle at 
the surface is measurably destroyed, which makes it 
necessary for powerful stimulants and antiseptics. If 
the pulse is weak, and the person complains of cold, 
give the compound preparation of lobelia, No. 6, or 
strong pepper or ginger tea ; give the No. 6 or com- 
pound preparation in tea-spoon doses every one, two or 
three hours, in warm water or tea, els the severity of the 
case demands. Drink warm teas ; relieve the bowels 
by injections, and keep the burn moist with the oil and 
No. 6 until the fire is out, then apply healing salves. 
All salves for burns ought to contain a large portion of 
the mucilage of slippery-elm or the pith of sassafras. If 
the hand and fingers, or under the arms, or any other 
part that is liable to touch, is burned so that the skin 
comes off, great care must be taken to prevent adhesion 
or growing of the parts together as it heals up ; keep 
lint or cloths between, spread with salve or wet with 
sweet oil and No. 6. 

Frozen Limbs. — When a person gets any of his 
limbs frozen, cold water should be applied ; very cold 
until the parts become thawed, and even then the warmth 
ought to be increased very gradually. If a person be- 
comes greatly benumbed, almost frozen, he ought not 
to be carried immediately into a warm room, but into a 
room without fire until natural circulation and sensibil- 
ity be measurably restored ; give stimulating drinks, as 



98 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

No. 6, in warm water, warm pepper tea, warm toddy, 
etc. This course is to be continued as long as the case 
requires it. Very light diet is to be given until diges- 
tion is restored, such as chicken tea, light soup, etc., all 
taken moderately warm, not over blood heat. 

Hoils. — In ordinary cases, very little attention is re- 
quired in the treatment of boils. When boils first ap- 
pear, while in their first forming stage, rub a little spirits 
of turpentine, No. 6, or compound preparation of lobelia, 
on the place two or three times in the course of forty- 
eight hours, and it will stop the progress in most cases, 
and check those it does not stop ; slippery-elm, red oak, 
or some other soothing poultices may be applied when 
the boil cannot be scattered or stopped. Open it where 
there is evidence of matter sufficiently collected. 

Carbuncles are sores resembling boils, but of a 
worse grade. Instead of a single head, with a core and 
matter, they frequently have many pimples, or apparent 
little heads on the skin, which seem to unite lower down, 
and when they come out, leave a large cavity, and very 
little matter discharged, except a shreddy, acrid sub- 
stance, resembling a core, full of little threads. Bony 
parts, as the back, neck, etc., are most subject to carbun- 
cles. They are slow to get well. Weakly persons are more 
liable to their attacks. Apply a poultice of beth-root, 
or the root bark of the white shumac and slippery-elm ; 
thicken with meal, all well boiled. Bayberry and elm 
poultice is very good ; dog-wood root bark, or oak bark 
also makes a good poultice. Local steaming to the part 
is beneficial. After the place is opened and discharges 



WHITLOW, OE BONE-FELON. 99 

its shreddy or acrid matter, wash the sore in a strong- 
decoction or tea of bay berry-root, or castile soap ; then 
pour in No. 6. Poultice it until it begins to heal, putting 
lint in the cavity, if needed. Then apply lint and salve, 
wetting the place occasionally with No. 6. Moderate ex- 
ercise, light diet, yet nourishing, and bitters are needed 
in the latter stage. 

Whitlow* or Bone Felon. — This painful dis- 
ease is mostly confined to the last joints of the fingers 
and thumbs. When the complaint is first felt, let there 
be an application of sulphur, or brimstone pounded fine, 
and the scraping of a bacon-rind, or the fat of old bacon 
made into a kind of plaster, and wrap up the finger or 
diseased part in it, and keep it there for three or four 
days ; this will prevent its further progress, perhaps nine 
times in ten, if applied in time. Holding the finger in 
alcohol, for several hours at a time, for two or three 
days, will sometimes put a stop to its progress. The 
compound preparation of lobelia does perhaps equally 
well, but if the complaint has run too far to be stopped, 
steam the part well over pine tops or bitter herbs for an 
hour or more, as it is agreeable to the patient ; then ap- 
ply a poultice of slippery-elm, shumac root-bark, or sweet 
potatoes, (other soft emollient poultices may be used, the 
poultices to be thickened with corn meal well boiled). 
Repeat this course as often as twice a day, or more, if 
needed, which will obviate the necessity of cutting down 
to the bone in an early stage ; but when there is evi- 
dence of matter near the surface, open with a lancet. I 
do not recommend cutting too soon. Steaming at any 
stage is beneficial ; it will frequently give instantaneous 



100 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

relief, and enable the patient to take a good nap of sleep. 
Let the patient take a tea-spoonful of the anodyne drops 
in tea or warm water, sweetened, after steaming, once a 
day, especially when steaming before going to bed. 

White Swelling. — This tedious and lingering 
disease, as it often proves to be, is mostly an evidence 
of feeble health or a scrofulous habit. It manifests 
itself in the limbs, or about the joints. In treating this 
complaint, the first object is to improve the general 
health, as well as local applications. For this purpose, 
cleanse the stomach by puking, and the bowels by injec- 
tions or mild laxatives, rhubarb and mandrake, just 
enough to move the bowels daily ; four to six or eight 
grains each will be sufficient. Give composition or 
bayberry and ginger tea at night ; take sarsaparilla, 
white ash, or narrow-dock, in tea or decoction, or in 
tincture, as an alterative ; give a lobelia pill after each 
meal to strengthen digestion and relax the system, and 
administer the steam bath, either local or general, daily • 
and also apply a liniment composed of No. 6, made of 
alcohol, four parts, the oil of cedar, one part, the oil of 
sassafras, one part, and spirits of turpentine, two parts ; 
anoint well with this liniment, and cover with flannel, 
which must be moistened with the liniment occasionally. 
Comfrey root scraped fine, and wet with No. 6, and ap- 
plied as a poultice, and renewed daily, is a good appli- 
cation. Keep up the general health by keeping the 
stomach cleansed, the bowels regular, and the skin 
moist, as directed in the above treatment ; give tonics to 
strengthen, poplar bark (the root is best), etc. White ash 
or graybeard, and the dog-wood makes a good bitter, 



ULCERS. 101 

either in substance or tincture ; two or three ounces of 
these barks combined, to a quart of good spirits ; dose 
three table-spoonfuls twice a day ; dose in substance, a 
heaping tea-spoonful in water three times a day ; the 
barks must be pounded fine, and sifted through course 
muslin or bobinet, to take in substance. 

Ulcers. — Ulcers are divided sometimes into healthy, 
unhealthy, and specific. In the young and robust, ulcers 
generally assume the healthy character. In the aged 
and infirm, and in the intemperate and dissolute, they 
usually assume more of the unhealthy appearance. Can- 
cers, scrofulous and chancrous, or syphilitic ulcers, etc., 
are considered specific. Healthy ulcers, in general, re- 
quire nothing more than to be protected from cold and 
the air by suitable bandaging and salve, and an occa- 
sional application of some stimulating lotion or liniment, 
as No. 6, tincture of myrrh, etc. Unhealthy ulcers are 
sometimes of long standing, and very hard to cure, re- 
quiring variety in treatment, and hence must be treated 
according to different appearances, and should be under 
the observance of a skillful physician ; yet to strengthen 
the general system is always beneficial, and some local 
treatment is innocent, and may have a good effect, as 
slippery-elm or charcoal poulticing, etc. ; cleanse the 
stomach by puking with lobelia taken in bayberry and 
ginger-tea ; repeat every week or less time ; keep the 
bowels regular, and the pores of the skin open. For 
this purpose take three or four lobelia pills daily, after 
meals and at night ; take a cup of composition tea at 
night, and the same amount of a tea made of sarsapa- 
rilla or sassafras root bark, made strong, taken of a 



102 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

morning. Many ulcers, termed unhealthy, may be bene- 
fited by keeping them covered with lint and salve, and 
wet with tincture of myrrh, or No. 6. Local steaming 
is good to aid in healing many unhealthy ulcers, and 
washing the ulcer in castile soap will often be found 
beneficial. General steaming is good for the general 
health, but always drink some composition tea, or ginger 
and sage tea while steaming. 

Venereal Disease. — Clap is considered the 
mildest variety of venereal diseases, and may be cured 
while in the early stage by taking a tincture of the May- 
apple or mandrake root, enough to act fully upon the 
bowels ; and then twice or thrice a day, for a week or 
ten days, eating at the same time milk and mush, and 
drinking slippery-elm water, and also taking two or 
three lobelia pills daily, after the first dose of the man- 
drake has fully operated ; also take rest. If the disease 
is not broken up in ten days or two weeks, apply to a 
skillful doctor, and abide his directions. Do not shift 
from one to another, at least for a length of time. If the 
disease is of long standing, or if it be syphilis or pox, 
it will require some time and a thorough course of al- 
teratives to cure it, as well as external applications to 
the chancres or sores. The sarsaparilla the queen's de- 
light, and the white ash, or graybeard, are the best alter- 
atives. Escharotic washes, and the tincture of lobelia 
and slippery-elm poultices are the best local applications. 
From four to ten weeks will be required to cure it 
thoroughly. 

Bee Sting*. — The compound preparation of lobe- 



WEAK NERVES. — PROLAPSUS ANI. 103 

ha is an antidote for the poison of bee sting. If the sting 
is external apply it two or three times, and the paining 
will cease. If the sting is in the mouth hold a portion 
in the mouth, or wet a swob in the liquid and apply it. 
A portion may be swallowed if the sting cannot be 
easily touched with the swob for this purpose ; it ought 
to be a little diluted. The tincture of lobelia is also 
very good. 

Weak Serves, or a Nervous, Trembling Con- 
dition. — If the cause is from a foul stomach, give a gen- 
tle emetic ; sponge the body in salt and water of a morn- 
ing (use it first tepid ; if it is required to be continued 
any length of time apply cold after a few days) ; rub 
dry and take moderate exercise, but not out of doors in 
bad weather. Take a tea-spoonful of the anodyne drops 
of a night in a cup of composition or sage tea, hike 
warm and sweetened to suit the taste ; use friction with 
a flesh-brush or coarse towel or the open hand ; take a 
lobelia pill occasionally after meals ; bitters may also 
be used, such as dogwood, poplar, cherry, etc. 

Prolapsus Ani, or Falling of 'the Bowels. — This 

rarely ever takes place but with children, or from severe 
purges of aloes, or other hard straining at^stool. When 
the bowel protrudes let the person be laid down with his 
hips somewhat elevated above the level of the body, and 
make gentle pressure against the bowel, until it is fully 
returned. If the bowel is liable to protrude, use injec- 
tions, made strong, and retained as long as possible, of 
witch hazel, oak bark, or shumac, or bay berry, and ap- 
ply a bandage. 



104 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Hernia, Rupture (or Busson). — When the bow- 
el is forced through the rim of the belly along the 
spermatic cord, it is called hernia or rupture ; it some- 
times forms a large sack in the scrotum or testicle. 
When rupture is produced let the bowel be returned as 
soon as possible to its proper place, to do which let the 
patient lie on his back with his hips elevated, then by 
moderate pressing aid the bowel to return into the ab- 
domen or belly, then apply a plaster, made by boiling 
oak bark until it thickens a little, put it on a cloth and 
apply it to the place about opposite where the bowel 
leaves the abdomen, or about an inch above, and toward 
the hip, from where you feel it going back, and fasten on 
with a bandage around the hips and between the legs ; 
by this means, and especially with children, a cure is 
sometimes effected ; but if the cure is not permanent, let 
a proper truss be procured, and wear it constantly, ex- 
cept when asleep or at rest. When the bowel cannot 
be returned, and before too much exertion to return it 
has been made, call in a skillful doctor, but these cases 
are rare when the bowel first protrudes. 



DISEASES OF WOMEN 

AND EARLY INFANCY. 

Woman, the helpmate and companion of man, is sub- 
ject to similar pains and afflictions as those experienced 
by man, and in addition to which, because she listened 
unto the temptations of the Serpent or Satan, her sor- 
rows and conceptions are multiplied, she is doomed to 
suffer pains and afflictions to which man is a stranger, 
only as he learns them by detail and observation ; but 
in the abundant mercy of God she has a promise left her 
that she shall be saved (under these) in child-bear- 
ing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness, 
with sobriety. And as this promise, being the promise 
of God, is immutable, she has been enabled, and is yet 
able, to bear these pains without murmurings or falter- 
ing. But as the pains, which are the cause of, or have 
connection with her sorrows, are also connected with 
and sometimes affect other vital organs, and thereby un- 
dermine health and prove fatal (where faith and other 
graces are not exercised) ; therefore*it is her duty to take 
heed and follow prudent advice, and not go carelessly 
or frowardly into those forbidden ways and acts, which 
are neither justifiable by Scripture nor warranted in 
prudence, but let her be discreet, giving heed to those 
prudent laws and requirements, called laws of nature, 

5* (105) 



108 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

given by a wise Creator, a just Judge, and a gracious 
Benefactor, who will judge of our stewardship. These 
peculiar pains or beginnings of sorrows, are realized as 
the girl approaches puberty or womanhood, and are 
manifested at the occurrence of that which is found 
among women alone, and is known under the name of 
monthly courses or menses, etc. The age at which this 
occurrence takes place varies several years, owing to 
climate, growth, health, etc. In temperate climates it 
takes place oftener between the ages of thirteen and 
sixteen years than otherwise, but with some it takes 
place at twelve years of age, and in others not until the 
seventeenth or eighteenth year, and in some rare cases 
it takes place some earlier or later than the years speci- 
fied ; but these are very rare. This secretion or the ap- 
pearance of the courses, ought to take place at the 
proper time of life, for although it is connected Avith the 
cause of woman's sorrows, yet it is as much a law of 
nature as perspiration or the discharge of any other se- 
cretion. But the number of years alone is not a suf- 
ficient indication for its appearance, there must be other 
evidences of womanhood or maturity, such as enlarge- 
ment of the breasts (mammas), expansion of the body, 
etc. When the girl has these corresponding evidences, 
i. e., if she has passed her fourteenth or fifteenth year 
of age, and her breasts have enlarged and her system 
has expanded, and ' if she has periodical pains in the 
lower part of the abdomen, or back and hips, with a 
heavy bearing down or dragging sensation, and the 
courses have not yet appeared, there is evidence to 
suspect the existence of a hindering cause, and medical 
aid may be considered as necessary ; but until these 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 107 

symptoms appear, if the girl's health is good, no medi- 
cine, under the character of emmenagogues, ought to be 
given, though she may be in her fifteenth or sixteenth 
year ; healthy exercise, cheerful company, and dry feet, 
are about as much as is required. But when the symp- 
toms as above mentioned are fully manifest, and the 
courses or menses do not appear, the woman's general 
health will become deranged, and another chain of 
symptoms will soon follow, unless relief is obtained, 
such as loss of appetite, paleness of the countenance, 
palpitation or fluttering of the heart, melancholy, 
spasms, etc., perhaps bleeding at the nose, and other 
parts of the body. The treatment in this case requires 
relaxing doses of lobelia, to unlock, so to speak, the 
capillary obstructions. If there is fever give a puke 
in composition tea, pennyroyal, balm or catnip tea ; 
and keep the stomach slightly nauseated for twenty- 
four or thirty hours by taking from one-fourth to one- 
third of a tea-spoonful of lobelia, powder or tincture, 
every two or three hours, taken in pennyroyal, or some 
other sweating- tea, and bathe the feet occasionally, at 
least once a day, and if the countenance is pale, and 
other evidence of debility is manifest, in addition to the 
above the patient must take stimulants and tonics ; a 
compound made of two parts (or tea-spoonfuls) of bay- 
berry, and one each of ginger and black cohosh (or 
rattle-weed), and a half of unicorn, to be taken in half 
tea-spoonful doses three times a day, in tea, syrup, or tepid 
water sweetened. The steam bath and the daily use of 
the lobelia pills are excellent auxiliaries, and will, with 
the above course, rarely fail to restore to health, or 
produce the wonted discharge of the menses. 



108 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

When the menses or courses have once been regular, 
or fully established, and have become checked, or stopped 
from any other cause besides pregnancy, such as cold, 
damp feet, etc., means should be resorted to for its res- 
toration. If cold be the cause (which is most commonly 
the case), the steam bath, hip-bath, or foot-bath, ought 
by all means to be used with such sweating medicines 
as are most likely to overcome the cold ; a cup of com- 
position tea taken three times a day. or of pennyroyal and 
ginger, or some other sweating teas, with two or three 
lobelia pills, taken every three or four hours, will usually 
be sufficient to overcome, and restore a healthy action, but 
if the case seems obstinate, add as much cohosh as will 
lie on a five-cent piece, and half a tea-spoonful of but- 
terfly root to each cup of tea. If any other cause be- 
sides cold produces the obstruction, treat the case ac- 
cording to the cause, yet the above treatment may be 
used, let the cause be what it may (except the cohosh 
ought not to be used if the cause is pregnancy). 

Geeen Sickness, or Chlorosis.— This disease is char- 
acterized by the appearance of the person, and is con- 
nected with a defective or obstructed menstruation, with 
numerous symptoms of bad health, sometimes supposed 
to be the cause, and sometimes the effect, of obstructed 
menstruation or courses. Be that as it may, it is abun- 
dantly evident that great torpidity and languor pervade 
the general system, and important organs in particular, 
as the stomach, the liver, the bowels, and especially the 
capillary vessels of the uterine organs (the little blood- 
vessels, etc., of the womb and its connections.) Hence 
the indications of treatment are pure stimulants to give 



GEEEN SICKNESS. 109 

energy to the system, emetics and injections (or gentle 
purges) to cleanse the stomach and bowels, relaxants to 
unlock or relieve the capillary obstructions, pure tonics, 
gentle exercise, a light and nourishing diet to give tone 
and strength to the system. Therefore give an emetic 
of lobelia, as soon as the symptoms manifest the case to 
be that of chlorosis, or green sickness ; give the puke of 
the compound preparation in some tea, or else give the 
lobelia powder in bayberry tea, made strong with pepper 
or ginger ; half a tea-spoonful of pepper or a tea-spoonful 
of ginger to the cup of tea, and a full tea-spoonful of 
lobelia to be taken at three or four drinks, from twenty 
to thirty minutes apart, and repeat if necessary ; give 
an injection of composition or bayberry tea, with a half 
tea-spoonful of No. 6, or the compound preparation of 
lobelia in it, or else give from ten to twelve grains of 
rhubarb with an equal quantity of black root, or half 
the quantity of mandrake, taken in peppermint tea ; take 
a lobelia pill after each meal for three or four days ; use 
the hip or foot bath at night. After the stomach and 
bowels have been cleansed, use the following compound : 
a half tea-spoonful of anvil scales pounded fine, steel 
dust, or carbonate of iron, the same amount of ginger, 
and as much unicorn-root pounded fine as will lie on a 
five-cent piece, taken in the mucilage of slippery-elm, or 
of the pith of sassafras, or else in a little warm water 
before meals, two or three times a day for a week or 
more, after which the spice bitters, with the unicorn 
added, may be taken ; and when symptoms manifest 
the efforts of nature to bring about the menstrual dis- 
charge, such as pains in abdomen, hip, back, etc., take 
half a tea-spoonful of the black cohosh, put in a cup of 



110 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

composition tea, and bathe the feet before the person 
goes, to bed ; if the pains are severe, give a tea-spoonful 
of the anodyne drops in tea or warm-water ; give the 
lobelia pills occasionally after meals, until health is re- 
stored ; but after a few days, one a day taken at night 
may be sufficient. Moderate exercise, dry feet, cheerful 
company, regular rest in sleep, with light nourishing 
diet, will usually effect a cure. 

Excessive Menstruation. — Sometimes from debil- 
ity or bad health, and perhaps a few other exciting 
causes, the menstrual flow is too excessive and too fre- 
quent, sometimes running the patient almost to death. 
This is to be remedied by aiding the natural powers to 
overcome the debility and strengthen the functions, and 
enable nature to perform the task allotted her. Give 
a tea made of the following compound : bayberry, two 
parts ; ginger and witch hazel, one part each ; beth-root 
and unicorn, one-half part each ; cayenne and cloves, 
one-eighth part each. (The measure may be a tea-spoon, 
table-spoon or anything else.) Then take of the com- 
pound a tea-spoonful, pour on it a cup of boiling water, 
and after it steeps till cool enough to drink, take one- 
fourth of the tea in the cup, sweetened ; in twenty or 
thirty minutes take another fourth, and so on till all is 
drank. This may be repeated two or three times, or 
else drink two or three cupfuls, one at a time, two hours 
apart ; bathe the feet and take one or two lobelia pills 
daily. If the flowing is very rapid, the tea should be 
made stronger, and taken oftener. Inject into the va- 
gina, or birth-place, a very strong tea of witch hazel and 
shumac leaves, and inject a strong tea of that to be drank 



PAINFUL MENSTRUATION. — PEEGNANCY. Ill 

into the bowels, adding a tea-spoonful of No. 6, or pep- 
per ; let the woman keep in bed, or what is better, on a 
mattress. As the disease proceeds from debility, and its 
tendency is to augment debility, it is not surprising that 
it should sometimes be hard to arrest, A puke is best 
to be given occasionally if fever arises ; be careful al- 
ways that the woman do not exert herself much, espe- 
cially just after the flow ceases. Spice bitters, and uni- 
corn, as in chlorosis, ought to be used during convales- 
cence, or until health is restored. 

Painful Menstruation. — Sometimes the woman 
suffers extreme pain during her menstrual period. 
This may be almost always relieved by taking the follow- 
ing directions : let the woman drink a tea composed of 
a tea-spoonful of good composition, with about ten grains 
of black cohosh (or rattle-weed root) added, all put in 
a cup of boiling water, and sweeten and drink when 
nearly cool; apply something warm to her feet, and take 
a tea-spoonful of the anodyne drops, with about as much 
of the unicorn root, pounded fine, as will lie on a five- 
cent piece, to be repeated once or twice ; the anodyne 
drops and unicorn may be taken in pennyroyal, ditany, 
or balm-tree, when the composition and rattle-weed can- 
not be had. This course will rarely fail to give relief 
in a few hours, or at least it has not failed in my hands 
in many cases. I have sometimes given two or three 
lobelia pills ; perhaps some rare cases might require 
more lobelia to relax further, especially if the cohosh 
cannot be had. 

Pregnancy. — When pregnancy takes place, the 



112 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

menstrual flow ceases (or at least in nearly all cases,) 
and a new train of pains and sorrows set in, such as sick 
stomach, heart-burn, water-brash, etc., etc. These differ, 
however, in different women, and in different pregnancies 
of the same woman. The woman must not expect to be 
entirely and permanently relieved of these by medicine 
or human skill ; they can be mitigated only. For sick 
stomach, let her take a cup of composition, spice bitters, 
a cup of coffee, or her breakfast, before she rises from 
her bed ; and one or two lobelia pills at bed-time. 

Heart-burn and Water-brash may be relieved mo- 
mentarily sometimes by keeping the bowels regular 
with injections, and chewing slippery-elm and swal- 
lowing the mucilage ; take occasionally a dose of the 
neutralizing mixtures, or a tea-spoonful of fine char- 
coal in composition tea. Lime water and magnesia are 
also recommended. 

Swelling op the Feet and Legs. — When this 
takes place, give injections of composition and a 
tea-spoonful of No. 6 in it, unless the woman be troubled 
with piles ; in that case the No. 6 would be painful, there- 
fore slippery-elm and sweet milk would be better ; take 
daily two or three lobelia pills, and bathe the feet well 
in weak lye or salt and water. 

Piles.— If piles are troubling the woman, besides 
the soothing injection above mentioned, use an astrin- 
gent injection of witch hazel and white shumac leaves j 
if the piles are external, apply the essence of pepper- 
mint, and an emollient poultice of slippery-elm, flax-seed 
or the pith of sassafras. 






DESPONDENCY, ETC. 113 

Despondency. — Where apprehensions of danger 
prevail to too great an extent, so as to affect the gen- 
eral health, a tea-spoonful of the anodyne drops in a 
cup of composition at night will have a good effect ; a 
lobelia pill after meals for a few days will strengthen 
the system ; cheerful company with moderate exercise 
in pure air, and bathing the feet at night, are also good. 

Costiveness. — This maybe relieved by taking a 
tea-spoonful of finely pulverized charcoal in tea or milk for 
a few days, or eating rye mush, ripe fruit, by two or three 
lobelia pills daily, or by injections ; if these fail, a little 
rhubarb in mint tea, and sweetened well, may be used. 

Difficulty in voiding the Ueine. — Where there 
is difficulty in making water or passing the urine, take 
watermelon-seed tea, parsley-root tea, Uva Ursa tea, 
or claver tea ; broken doses of lobelia in some of the teas, 
and the steam or foot bathing, will relax the system and 
aid in passing the urine. 

Morbid Cravings. — When the woman has morbid 
cravings, called longing, when it can be done and reason 
does not forbid, let the cravings be satisfied. 

Pain in the Right Side. — When this occurs, we 
suppose the womb presses upon the liver, and of course 
cannot be entirely relieved, and such remedies ought 
to be used as will assist to equalize the circulation 
of the blood, and prevent, as far as can be, inflamma- 
tion of that viscus, the liver. The use of the vapor bath, 



114 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

stance, taken in sweating teas, will accomplish this to 
some extent, at least it has given some relief in my prac- 
tice. 

Abortion or Miscarriage. — The usual time allotted 
for women to be pregnant, or, as it is usually ex- 
pressed, to be in .the family way, medically called 
Utcrogestation, is ascertained to be about 280 days, 
40 weeks or 9 months ; quickening usually takes place 
about the end of the fourth or the beginning of the 
fifth month, but these counts are liable to some variation. 
If the womb expels the foetus, or child, before the end of 
the sixth month, it is called abortion ; if that expulsion 
or delivery takes place after the end of the sixth month, 
and before the full time, it is called a premature birth. 
It is generally admitted that a child may live that is 
born after the seventh month in a healthy state, though 
it is usually weak and feeble for a considerable time, re- 
quiring close attention and care, neither can we rely 
with as much confidence upon its being raised as one 
that comes to its full time. 

When there is flooding or hemorrhage, with painful con- 
tractions of the womb, manifest by pain in the lower part 
of the abdomen and back, we may suspect abortion ; still 
sometimes it does not take place with all these symptoms 
going before. Flooding or hemorrhage, however, cannot 
take place until a portion of the placenta, or after-birth, 
is detached, or is torn loose from the womb. If the sep- 
aration is so extensive as to destroy the vital union be- 
tween the mother and the child, abortion must take place ; 
if the separation is only partial, and the living principle 
between the mother and the child is not destroyed, the 



ABORTION OR MISCARRIAGE. 115 

union of the placenta may again take place, the child 
live, and abortion be prevented. If the child dies 
from any other cause, it must come away, or the mother 
will sink with it ; abortion in such cases is necessary. 

The causes which produce abortion are various, such 
as sudden frights, sudden and excessive joy, bruises, over- 
straining, excessive grief, etc. An irritable condition 
of the womb will also produce premature contractions, 
and consequently cause abortion ; this irritable condi- 
tion, with either of the other causes, augments the lia- 
bility to abortion. Abortions are more liable to take 
place in the early months of pregnancy than in the latter 
months. The greatest liability is supposed to be from 
the seventh to the thirteenth week, yet no time is ex- 
empted. 

Preventatives or Remedies. — When symptoms denot- 
ing an approaching abortion are manifest, such as pain- 
ful sensations about the womb, flooding, etc., let the 
cause be what it may, an effort should be made to take 
off uterine contractions, the painful sensations about the 
womb, or the lower part of the abdomen and back. Let 
the circulation of the blood be equalized as speedily as 
possible ; nothing seems better calculated to accomplish 
this desirable object than vapor bathing and quietude, and 
rest in a lying position ; do not omit to take either the 
vapor bath, or the foot bath, and drink at the same time 
composition tea, balm, or some other sweating teas, with 
broken doses of lobelia in it, (as much lobelia as will lie 
on a ten cent piece to a cup of tea); this will aid very much 
in equalizing the circulation ; a tea-spoonful of anodyne 
drops taken in the tea every four or five hours will be ben- 



116 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

eficial, and will, in most cases of simple irritability of the 
womb, relieve its contractions in from four to twelve 
hours. If flooding is present, in addition to bathing 
and rest let the patient drink a tea of the following 
compound : witch hazel, beth-root, bayberry, and ginger, 
a tea-spoonful of each to a half pint of boiling water, 
and steeped till cool enough to drink ; a wine-glassful of 
this tea is to be taken every forty or sixty minutes with 
ten or fifteen drops of anodyne in it ; either of the as- 
tringent articles may be taken single with the ginger 
added, only decrease the ginger one half ; this may be 
continued twelve hours unless the flooding ceases sooner ; 
if the flooding abates, but does not stop entirely, continue 
the teas but in less quantities. Keep the feet warm 
with hot bricks or rocks wrapped in damp cloths but 
not hot enough to burn the cloths, and give an injection 
to the bowels of the same kind of teas. If the flooding 
is very severe keep the patient in a lying position, com- 
pose the mind as much as possible, and enjoin quietude, 
and have such company only as the patient is pleased 
with (allowing always for necessary attendance). Some 
persons cannot bear much company, others are pleased 
with it. 

Constitutional Irritability of the Womb. — Some 
women appear to be troubled with a kind of constitu- 
tional irritability of the womb, so as to produce abortion 
or premature labor in almost every pregnancy, at least 
many in succession, without appreciable cause other than 
irritability ; in such cases the following course is sug- 
gested. Use tonics externally and internally with ano- 
dynes ; prepare a quilted bandage of thin cloth, with 



SIGNS OF PREGNANCY. 117 

little sacks or spaces from a half to three quarters of an 
inch apart, extending crosswise, not up and down ; fill 
these with dried tansy pounded fine, dogwood bark and 
unicorn and peruvian bark, either single or combined ; 
let this be applied and worn round the abdomen for 
several weeks before the expected time of miscarriage ; 
drink a tea made of the following composition — bayberry 
and dried tansy equal parts, ginger half as much, and 
unicorn one-fourth part ; a tea-spoonful of this compound, 
to a cup of boiling water, taken nearly cool night and 
morning, with a half tea-spoonful of anodyne drops in it 
and a lobelia pill after eating, one a day, every other or 
every third day for the same length of time ; bathe the 
feet occasionally at night, keep the bowels regular and 
the mind cheerful. 

Signs of Pregnancy. — In the early months of preg- 
nancy, the woman and sometimes friends are anxious 
to know her true condition. After the monthly courses 
have stopped, the most infallible signs are, sickness of the 
stomach, enlargement and hardening of the breasts with a 
dark ring around the nipples, change of countenance, fre- 
quent change of temper, heart-burn, water-brash or ex- 
cessive spitting, toothachy, and apparently to become 
more slender around the waist ; yet these signs are not 
infallible, although they may afford a tolerably correct 
idea, especially if several of them are manifest at the 
same time ; quickening and smoothing of the umbilicus 
are additional evidences, and for simple curiosity they 
ought to suffice or be sufficient to satisfy, but all doubt is 
not always removed until enlargement of the abdomen, 
and, finally, delivery take place. 



118 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

False Pains. — These pains frequently occur, and 
sometimes with such regularity and frequency as to in- 
duce the midwife, and sometimes the doctor, too, to be- 
lieve true labor has commenced ; too hasty an opinion 
from insufficient evidence may lead to improper steps, 
especially with those who make a liberal use of ergot 
and other forcing means. To use ergot in such a case, 
would doubtless cause the woman to undergo unnecessary 
sufferings, and perhaps fatal consequences. To deter- 
mine whether the pains are false or true labor pains, 
time and means are necessary, for although you make 
an examination and find the mouth of the womb soft and 
slightly opening, yet it is best to wait and give such aid 
as is neither forcing nor depressing, until nature deter- 
mines the case. Bathe the feet or give the vapor bath to 
relax the muscular fibers ; give an injection of com- 
position tea with a tea-spoonful of lobelia in it, which 
will also relax and remove a windy colic ; give some 
composition, or other teas, with one or two lobelia pills 
to strengthen the nerves and afford further natural aid ; 
use these means and wait patiently, and observe the 
progress, and, finally, never use opium in any of its prep- 
arations to allay pains, nor give ergot to increase them, 
especially when the powers of nature are sufficiently 
strong. If the pains are true labor pains they will in- 
crease in due time, and if they are false, with safe reme- 
dies they will cease and leave no bad effects following ; 
nature in this case, as well as others, will do her work 
correctly and in due time. 

Labor. -—When the full time has come, and labor 
sets in, the first pains are usually sharp (though some may 



LABOE. 119 

have uneasy painful sensations for several days previous), 
and which continue a short time, and then relax or 
mostly cease ; but in the course of one or two hours, 
sometimes more and sometimes less, they return. These 
are termed cutting or grinding pains ; they will continue 
an indeterminate time, mostly from six to twelve hours, 
before the true bearing down pains commence. These 
grinding pains, though harassing, accomplish a great 
work ; they relax and overcome the resistance to the 
passage of the child. In first labors, therefore, and more 
especially in those cases where the woman is of a strong 
muscular fiber or make, and somewhat advanced in years, 
they continue usually the longest ; but as they are na- 
ture's works, no uneasiness ought to arise on account of 
the length of time they continue, provided no congestion 
upon the brain or other unpleasant symptoms are likely 
to take place, which sometimes, through fear or dread, 
or other causes, is the case. The woman, however, ought 
to be encouraged to bear these pains, harassing as they 
are, with all the fortitude and composure that becomes 
a woman under such circumstances. Let her remember 
it is that which all women have to endure, in a greater 
or less degree, who bear children. Let her be reminded 
of the promise of God, that while faith and charity con- 
tinue with her, she shall be saved in child bearing. 

No medicine is necessary at this stage in most cases ; 
but if spasms from congestion upon the brain, or from 
other nervous cause, seem likely to take place, let the 
woman take lobelia in catnip or balm tea freely, and 
bathe the feet in warm water with pepper or mustard in 
it ; give an injection of composition tea, with a half tea- 
spoonful of the compound preparation of lobelia in the 



120 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

tea, or if that is not at hand, put a tea-spoonful of lobelia 
in substance or of the tincture in it ; this will relax and 
take off congestion or rigidity. Wet the face and tem- 
ples with cold water, or water and vinegar. If she is 
made to vomit, no bad consequences will arise, yet it is 
not always desirable ; do not, however, hesitate to give 
lobelia for fear of vomiting, but be sure to give enough 
to relax the system — one, two or three tea-spoonfuls, and 
sometimes more than that will be required to relax fully 
so as to prevent spasm. After the system is sufficiently 
relaxed, and the grinding pains subsided, or are rather 
changed into true bearing down pains, the woman be- 
comes usually more composed and bears her pains with 
greater fortitude, and seems to yield her strength to aid 
nature to effect a delivery ; or, in other words, her efforts 
are more natural, and if she is assured that all things 
are right, and that progress is making, very frequently 
in the intervals of pain she is cheerful and mostly jocu- 
lar, being willing to break a joke with the midwife and 
by-standers. 

Duration of true Labor Pains. — Where nothing 
obstructs but muscular rigidity, delivery is usually 
effected in from six to twelve hours after true labor 
commences ; frequently less, but sometimes longer. 

Divisions of Labor. — Labor is divided by medical 
men into three stages. The first commences with 
the opening of the mouth of the womb, or the set- 
ting in of the first pain, and extends to the head of the 
child passing through the mouth of the womb. The 
second stage embraces the entire delivery of the child. 



CONDUCTING A LABOR. 121 

The third, the delivery of the after-birth with its mem- 
branes. 

Conducting a Labor ; or, the Duty of a Midwife. 
— When the midwife arrives at the place of her call, it is 
her duty (if she has been called in due time) to see that 
the bed and bedding, together with the woman's apparel, 
are arranged in due order. She must approach the wo- 
man with that composure and cheerfulness which will 
induce her and her friends to believe that she is thought- 
ful, and confiding in ultimate success. She is to observe 
the operation of the pains, and the condition of the pa- 
tient, particularly her mind, for a few moments. If the 
labor is in its first stage, the pains light and transient, 
and no unpleasant symptom manifests itself, nothing but 
agreeable and cheerful conversation is needed for the 
present, except that she may, and perhaps ought, to ap- 
ply her hands externally to the patient's sides and abdo- 
men, to ascertain whether there is obliquity or hanging 
too much to one side or the other, or whether the child 
inclines too much in front ; but if the pains are hard and 
frequent, an examination, per vagina or birth place, 
ought to be made to ascertain the condition of the womb 
and the presentation of the child. For this purpose let 
the patient lie on her left side, or on her back, near the 
foot of the bed, with her knees drawn near the abdomen ; 
the forefinger is to be covered with sweet oil or lard, 
and introduced into the vagina or birth place, and pushed 
upwards near the back until it touches the womb, then 
bring it forward until you find the mouth or opening. 
If the mouth is opened as large as a half dollar, or to 
admit the end of two fingers, the bag containing the 
G 



122 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

water (called by doctors liquor amni) will be found to 
become hard or tight, and rather push itself out during 
a pain ; at this time the midwife can determine, while 
the pain is off, whether it be a head presentation or not 
(in most cases). The roundness and hardness of the 
head will usually be sufficient for her to determine 
whether the head presents or not ; the certainty of 
which will answer her purpose, without seeking to know 
which of the dozen positions the doctors claim or enu- 
merate for the head to present in. When the head pre- 
sents, we may rely with pretty firm confidence, that the 
child will be born in duo time without the aid of instru- 
ments, provided the pains continue and the woman's 
strength holds out. And the head will not fail to pre- 
sent one time in a hundred (and perhaps in a thousand), 
where the woman has gone her full time and no acci- 
dent happened to her during pregnancy ; and her 
strength is usually sufficient to the task. If the bed- 
ding and clothing are all properly adjusted, and the 
midwife has made the necessary examinations both to 
the sides and in front externally, and the mouth of the 
womb by the birth-place, and all so far are in a favora- 
ble condition, the midwife has really nothing to do but 
to talk and joke and smoke her pipe, if admissible, and 
wait for further manifestations, remembering that a med- 
dlesome midwife is wrong. 

But if the child has too much lying or inclination to 
either side, let the woman lie on the opposite side until 
she has one or two pains, or till she seems to get straight ; 
if it inclines too much in front, let her lie on her back, 
or else apply a bandage, which may be done in either 
case. When the waters break, as it is called, let there 



CONDUCTING A LABOR. 123 

be another examination made to ascertain if the hand 
or cord is coming down by the side of the head. If the 
hand is found descending by the side of the head, it 
would be well for the midwife to place the ends of 
her fingers or finger against the descending hand of the 
child during a pain or two, to cause, if possible, its re- 
turn to a position less painful and dangerous. If the 
cord, by its too great length and weight, finds its way out 
by the side of the head, it should, if possible, be returned 
or pushed back, for notwithstanding it is not likely to 
obstruct the progress of labor very materially, or en- 
danger the life of the mother greatly, yet it is extremely 
hazardous to the child, for while the head is passing the 
outward strait or passage, the cord is pressed so severely 
as to intercept or stop the circulation of the blood 
through it, which alone, as yet, affords life from the 
mother to the child. In attempting to return either 
hand or cord, the midwife must exercise reflection and 
judgment ; let her hold or keep up the cord in the most 
favorable position, until, if possible, the head may pass 
it before it enters the outlet or strait. If this is attend- 
ed to early, and the cord is not unusually long, it may be 
accomplished, at least in some instances. If all is right 
after she has made this examination, the midwife still 
has nothing to do but wait further progress, and as- 
sure the woman there is nothing wrong ; and during 
the intervals of pain let the conversation be such as 
suits the temperament of the woman's mind. Some women 
are pleased and cheered by jokes, others cannot bear 
them to much extent, while some again are not pleased 
with much conversation of any kind, and can scarcely 
bear a joke. But during a pain conversation ought to 



124 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

cease, in all cases, except what is absolutely necessary. 
When the head begins to press upon the outward parts 
the midwife should be at her place, guarding the peri- 
nseum, which is the part between the anus and the birth- 
place, and as the head is passing, the hand, wide open, 
should be kept against this part, making tolerable firm 
pressure against it, but with somewhat of a sliding mo- 
tion backward, that is, as the head pushes forward, the 
hand over the perinseum ought rather to push the peri- 
nseum backward ; but this counter or backward pressure 
must by no means stop the motion of the child ; in a 
word, the design is to prevent the perinasurn from being 
disturbed or stretched too far. As soon as the head 
passes the outward strait and is born into the world, all 
mucous matter should be gently wiped from the child's 
mouth, so that it may breathe, which it will sometimes 
do before the body is born fully into the world ; a finger 
should be put to the neck of the child to feel if there is 
a loop of the cord wrapped around it ; if there is, the 
loop ought to be slackened, if possible, so as for the 
shoulders to pass through it ; yet the pulling to loosen 
the cord must be gentle, and not hard enough to break 
the cord, or in any way endanger it ; the hand should be 
placed under the head and hold it in such manner as for 
it to be in a line with the motion the body is making ; as 
the shoulders are passing the last strait or outlet, the body 
will turn, which should not be hindered, but gently aided, 
by letting the head move regular with it, but no effort 
to turn ought to be made by the midwife, independent 
of or more than the turn nature gives. When the child 
is born and it cries we know that life is in it ; if it does 
not cry, lay it on its right side, which will favor the pas- 



CONDUCTING A LABOE. 125 

sage of the blood through the lungs ; if it still does not 
breathe in a few moments, dash a little cold water in its 
face, and gently rub the hand over its chest and stomach ; 
if it yet fails to breathe, apply, with the open hand, a 
little compound preparation of lobelia to the pit of the 
stomach and the right side, and high enough to be 
opposite the right lung, and at the same time, if the cord 
has ceased to beat near the after-birth, let it be tied 
about one and a-half inches from the child, and cut three- 
fourths or an inch from the tied place (and the tying 
made so strong as not to bleed), and the child put in 
warm water, holding the head up, and it moved up and 
down in the water, and continue the exertions as long 
as there is any hope of its life. 

Delivery of the Afterbirth. — The after-birth is 
sometimes expelled with the same pain that expels the 
child, but more frequently, fifteen,twenty or thirty minutes 
pass before a pain to deliver the after-birth comes on ; 
and if the woman is not dangerously flooding no un- 
easiness ought to be excited if it be an hour or more. 
Make no exertion to force it away by pulling the cord ; 
a gentle motion at the cord may be made to excite con- 
traction of the womb ; let the motion be downwards or 
backwards, and at the same time let the woman blow 
in her fist ; she may rise on her feet if she feels strong and 
is not flooding, but let her lean or bear upon the shoul- 
ders of the midwife and other attendants, and blow in 
her fist as above directed ; but if she is weak or 
fainty or flooding much, she had best not rise ; but 
give an injection of composition with a tea-spoonful of 
No. 6 in it, which will almost always cause a sufficient 



126 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

contraction to expel the after-birth (it is also good to 
stop flooding). If, however, the woman is troubled with 
piles, less No. 6 must be put in the injection, as it would 
cause severe burning ; a grasping motion with the 
hand on the abdomen over the womb occasionally 
will also aid to cause the womb to contract, and expel 
the after-birth, and ought to be applied when the 
womb does not contract readily. When the after-birth 
is delivered and the woman made as comfortable as her 
case will allow, a bandage ought to be applied around 
her, which should be previously prepared and ready ; it 
should be wide enough to reach from the hip joint to 
the navel, umbilicus, with four or five loops and strings ; 
let it be slipped under her without fatigue or exertion 
on her part, and tie the lowest strings and loop first 
about as tight as she can bear it without rendering her 
uncomfortable, and the next lower strings and loop in 
the same manner, and so on to the top ; let the fasten- 
ing be mostly to one side and not immediately in front. 

Caution to Midwives. — There are occurrences which 
sometimes take place during the progress of labor that 
render it necessary that the midwife should be on her 
guard, and exercise manly fortitude, such as where the 
woman in her first labor has tedious, harassing, and 
cutting or grinding pains ; she is very apt to imagine her- 
self to be in a worse condition than any person ever 
was before and recovered ; and if the woman has borne 
children, she may forget, and suppose that she is in a 
worse condition than she ever was before, and under such 
circumstances frequently urge that something must be 
given to increase and hasten the labor, and if her desire 



CONDUCTING A LABOR. 127 

is not granted she becomes restless and perhaps fretful ; 
her friends get uneasy, a hint is given, or an open de- 
claration is made, that a doctor must be sent for, thereby 
indirectly telling the midwife that she either does not 
know her duty, or else that she is careless and indiffer- 
ent ; and as but few persons can bear to be set back 
and take it patiently, without a firm resolution pre- 
viously formed, and particularly if she has armed herself 
with those two deadly weapons, ergot and opium, or 
laudanum, she may be tempted to use one or both un- 
knowingly, to the injury, perhaps, if not to the destruc- 
tion of either mother or child, or both ; she may give 
opium or laudanum to check the severity of the pains, 
and then ergot to bring them on, first crippling the 
natural powers, and then urging them to such a pitch 
that irreparable mischief is the consequence. From 
these considerations, let me impress it upon you, O 
midwives, to remember that you are responsible agents ; 
it is your duty to consider nature's laws, and never cross 
them, but aid them. Nature has established these pains 
to accomplish a desirable end ; and when uninterrupted 
or not morbidly excited they will accomplish it, which is, 
to relax and prepare the system to undergo that which it 
could not do with safety without such relaxation and 
preparation. Let not personal considerations turn you 
from a wise and prudent course of conduct, especially in 
this case. The safety and sufferings of a fellow-being in 
deep distress, are in some measure placed in your hands ; 
so act that you may find rest when you lie down to 
sleep. Again, much evil has resulted from a too restless 
and hasty a desire to deliver the after-birth. Do not 
resort to any rash pulling at the cord, nor fatiguing ex- 



128 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

ertions on the part of the patient, but wait a due time 
■with patience ; when the system has recovered from the 
shock, and has received strength, the powers of nature 
will deliver the after-birth in most cases ; use the means 
as above directed, pursue that course, and wait with 
patience, provided no bad symptom is manifest. If 
flooding should occur in too rapid a manner, either be- 
fore or after the delivery of the after-birth, give an in- 
jection of witch-hazel, bayberry, and shumac leaves, add- 
ing a tea-spoonful of No. 6, (provided the woman is 
not troubled with piles, and if so less quantity of No. 
6,) and drink a tea made of beth-root, composition, and 
witch-hazel, (combined or single) ; a tea-spoonful to a cup 
of boiling water is a dose, to be repeated two or three 
times, if necessary, in so many hours, or half hours, 
and at the same time make a grasping pressure with the 
hand on the abdomen over the womb ; make tolerable 
firm pressure, but not to create pain. 

If the after-birth has adhered so fast to the womb that 
the contracting powers are not able to separate it, the 
hand must be gently inserted into the womb, and with 
the ends of the fingers cautiously and regularly separate 
it from the womb and bring it away. This course is 
more necessary where dangerous flooding is manifest ; 
but it should not be done in a rash, headlong manner, 
and yet if there is not sufficient skill and courage, it is 
best not to undertake it, but send for a skillful doctor. 
Other presentations than the head, and turning is 
thought to be necessary at the full term of gestation or 
delivery, a skillful physician had best be called in. 
Turning is attended with danger, and as but few mid- 
wives have experience and courage enough to undertake 



CONDUCTING A LABOE. 129 

it, I would not recommend it to all, for turning ought 
not to be attempted but upon the best evidence of its 
necessity, and then to be performed with skill and cour- 
age. When the feet or breech presents, I would not ad- 
vise to the effort of turning, for no advantage can be 
gained, for delivery will in almost all cases be effected 
through nature's efforts, only the progress will be slower 
and a little more painful, but in due time she will accom- 
plish her work if the powers of the system are not too 
much enfeebled otherwise. When in breech or feet pre- 
sentation and the lower extremities have passed and are 
out, and the head is passing the upper strait, sometimes 
one or both hands are forced up by the side of the head ; 
and when the shoulders do not come down with reason- 
able speed, we may suppose this occurrence has taken 
place ; a finger may gently be pushed up to the bend of 
the elbow and draw the hand down ; if the other is in 
that condition, pull it down in the same way, always being 
careful to hold the child so as to make it as easy as pos- 
sible to come at the arm ; after the hands are down, hold 
the child in a line with the passage, and urge the woman 
to bear down, for the cord being by the side of the head 
there is great danger of the child's life if kept in that 
condition long, but if the woman cannot be urged nor 
persuaded to bear down, slip two of your fingers above 
the child's mouth and nose, so as to let it breathe if pos- 
sible. The woman in this case may be exhorted to bear 
down, which it would not be proper to do while the 
head is passing in a head presentation, for the parts are 
dilated or opened by the passage of the body of the child. 

Medicine during Labor. — In the majority of cases 
6* 



130 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

very little or no medicine is needed ; but if the wo- 
man is in her first labor, and more especially if she is 
strong and robust, and somewhat advanced in life (say 
twenty-five or thirty), it may be prudent to give some 
lobelia in balm, catnip, or composition tea to relax the 
system ; this is safe in any labor, but not always neces- 
sary, for it is little trouble, comparatively speaking, for 
some women to bear children, and even the same woman 
does not always have a hard time alike. If the labor 
becomes lingering from rigidity, give lobelia to relax 
even to puking sometimes, but always give plentifully of 
teas or warm water if you puke. If the case becomes 
lingering, and the patient feeble, give the anodyne drops 
in half tea-spoonful doses every hour or two in tea. 
Composition or ginger tea may be used if the drops can- 
not be had. If the pains become languid for the want 
of nervous energy, give stimulants, as No. 6, compound 
preparation of lobelia in fifteen, twenty, or thirty-drop 
doses in tea or warm water. If the bowels need evacu- 
ation, give injections of composition tea, syrup and water, 
soap-suds, or gruel. If spasms occur, or manifest symp- 
toms of them, give lobelia in tea-spoonful doses several 
times, until the system is fully relaxed ; give stimulating 
injections with lobelia in it, and make cold applications 
to the head. I am persuaded that nothing can be used 
with as much safety, and with as good effect, as lobelia 
in puerperal spasms, or spasms in child-bearing; let no 
one doubt it until he has fully tried it. The lobelia may 
be taken in tea or warm water. 

Dangerous Flooding. — When flooding is so rapid as 
to induce doubts of safety or fear of sinking, in addi- 



CONDUCTING A LABOE. 131 

tion to the course above directed, use stimulating 
and astringent injections, grasping, pressure, etc. ; wet 
a towel in cold water and apply to the lower part of the 
abdomen and to the nates ; but these cold applications 
ought not to remain long enough to produce chilliness, 
and when they are removed, wipe dry. If the feet are 
cold, warm applications must be made to them. 

Difficulty in voiding Urine. — When this occurrence 
takes place, which it sometimes does, the bladder be- 
comes full and feels like a hard tumor, somewhat to 
one side, and just above the pubes or cross-bone. The 
steam bath, or cloths wrung out of hot water and ap- 
plied warm, will sometimes cause the water to pass ; 
injections with lobelia in them also have a good effect. 
Watermelon-seed tea, parsley-root tea, etc., may be given, 
but if the passage of urine cannot be effected otherwise, 
it must be drawn off with a catheter ; use, if convenient, 
a gum-elastic catheter or instrument. Insert where the 
water or urine comes out, and as you push it in let your 
finger guide the end so as to make it turn upwards. 

Twins. — In cases of twins the children are not usu- 
ally so large as in single births. The greatest precau- 
tion most necessary in these cases is to tie the cord in 
two places, and cut it between the ties if the first child 
has to be separated before the second one is born. Tie, 
as usual, the first tie about one and a-half or two inches 
from the child. But as the children are usually smaller 
in twin-births than single ones, the labor is generally 
shorter, and the second child is often born before it is 
necessary to cut the cord of the first, yet it is not always 



132 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

the case. It is necessary to keep the woman encour- 
aged, more especially up to the time the pains become 
regularly bearing down for the birth of the second child. 
I do not consider the danger augmented in twin-birtha 
but very little, if any, over single ones, in a great ma- 
jority of cases. 

Childbed or Puerperal Fever. —This disease seems 
to be at times somewhat epidemical ; and again it as- 
sumes something of a contagious or catching form, and 
doctors caution pregnant women against its influence. 
But cases of child-bed fever have occurred, (and perhaps 
more frequently than otherwise in the country,) where 
symptoms and circumstances would not justify the idea 
that they were produced from either of the above causes, 
but from causes wholly local ; yet precaution may be 
observed, and preventive means perhaps ought to be 
used in all cases, especially such means as are both inno- 
cent and efficacious ; for this purpose let the following 
remedies and rules be observed, which have proved both 
innocent and safe so far as my observation has gone, 
and which are attested by other good authorities. Let 
the system be relaxed during the progress of labor, where 
it seems to be in the least necessary ; after delivery let 
the woman have her bowels evacuated by injections daily, 
or every other day ; the injections may be made of a heap- 
ing tea-spoonful of salt, and a table-spoonful of syrup or 
molasses to a cup of warm water, or a cup of composi- 
tion tea, or simply gruel ; let her take a lobelia pill after 
meals for three or four days, and then one pill a day up 
to the twelfth or fourteenth day. Let the house be ven- 
tilated with pure air and kept so ; but not to be subject 



MILK-CHILLS. 133 

to gusts of cold or damp air, nor yet to be kept too warm ; 
let her diet be light and nourishing, and suited to the 
appetite. This course will reward its observers. 

Treatment of Child-bed Fever. — When this fever oc- 
curs, either from neglect or otherwise, the best course 
of treatment ought to be observed and instituted. When 
the abdomen or belly is swollen and tender to the touch, 
and accompanied with fever preceded by a chill or severe 
chilliness, let an injection be administered immediately, 
composed of composition or bayberry and witch-hazel, 
and a tea-spoonful of lobelia to either, and made stimulat- 
ing with ginger, pepper or No. 6. An injection to be 
repeated in two hours, made of slippery-elm, the mu- 
cilage of pith of sassafras, or flaxseed ; and a poultice 
of slippery-elm and corn-meal well boiled, with a little 
cream or sweet oil, or lard, spread over it to keep it from 
sticking, and applied warm as can well be borne ; this is 
to be removed, wet and warmed, and reapplied as often 
as it gets cold ; let her drink some sweating teas, with 
broken doses of lobelia, balm, sage or composition, or in- 
stead of the broken doses of lobelia, the lobelia pills may 
be used, several of them taken daily or one every two 
hours. Let hot bricks or rocks wrapped in wet or damp 
cloths be kept constantly to the feet, and sometimes it 
is prudent to apply them to the nates. The injections 
must be repeated once, twice or three times daily, as the 
case may demand it ; as a constant drink, when thirsty, 
use slippery-elm water or mucilage. The diet must be 
light, such as crust- tea, elm-gruel, etc.; this is to be used 
during the fever. 

Milk-Chills. — It sometimes occurs as the breasts be- 



134 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

gin to secrete or fill up with milk, that there is chilliness, 
followed by more or less fever, and as child-bed fever is 
preceded by chills, uneasiness or dread is occasioned 
thereby ; but there is this difference : in milk-chills 
there is not that tenderness to pressure on the abdomen 
as in child-bed fever, and is without swelling. In milk- 
chills take a cup of composition tea, or a few lobelia 
pills, and apply a warm brick to the feet ; this will usual- 
ly be sufficient to stop the chill and ward off danger. 

Milk-leg. — This disease may be considered as of 
rather rare occurrence ; it is less frequent than child- 
bed fever, and less immediately dangerous. The same 
means recommended to prevent child-bed fever will also 
aid much in preventing milk-leg. The vapor bath and 
stimulating injections with tonics, are mostly to be relied 
upon in the cure of milk-leg ; an occasional emetic will 
sometimes be necessary, with stimulating embrocations 
and relaxants. The compound preparation of lobelia or 
No. 6, four parts ; sweet oil, four parts ; the oil of cedar 
and the oil of sassafras each one part, make a good em- 
brocation to rub on ; and three or four lobelia pills 
daily to relax, is a good course of treatment. 

Sore Nipples. — Bathe the nipples well with a very 
strong decoction of bayberry two or three times 
daily ; apply the tincture of myrrh, so as to wet the nip- 
ples each time after the child has been to the breast ; 
cover the parts with salve in which cumfrey root has 
been stewed ; where the case is very severe, nipple 
shields should be used. If the nipples be washed with 
salt and brandy, or the tincture of myrrh daily for 



SWELLED BREASTS. 135 

three or four weeks before delivery, it will greatly as- 
sist in preventing them from getting sore. If the case 
becomes very bad, in addition to the local treatment let 
the woman take spice bitters, composition, and some re- 
laxants, to strengthen the system and equalize the cir- 
culation, so as to prevent too- great a determination of 
blood to the parts. This is only necessary in bad cases. 

Swelled Breasts. — When the breasts become in- 
flamed, swell and are painful from taking cold or 
otherwise, apply the tincture of camphor (or camphor 
dissolved in spirits) tolerably plentiful, and one-fourth 
or one-third of the quantity of the essence of pepper- 
mint, and cover them with wilted collard-leaves. If this 
does not abate the pain and reduce the swelling, make a 
slippery-elm poultice and apply it. This is, perhaps, the 
best poultice in most cases. That kind of a tree-fern or 
leafy moss that grows on the limbs of old post oaks, 
called, sometimes, Polapoda, makes a good poultice ; mint 
and yarrow also make a good poultice ; sweet potatoes 
are also good. The poultice should be removed fre- 
quently, say two or three times a day, and while it 
is off rub with camphor ; but where the collection of mat- 
ter seems to be very deeply seated, perhaps salve and 
liniments, or some other emollient application will answer 
a better purpose for a while than poulticing, as poultices 
long continued sometimes relax the parts too much. If 
the salve and liniments give as much ease as poultices 
they ought to be used. The woman, for her general 
health, may take composition or other sweating teas ; if 
she has fever, give lobelia enough to slightly nauseate 
the stomach. When the matter is sufficiently collected, 



136 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

the breast ought to be opened with a lancet at the lower 
edge at the point nearest to the matter. 

Diseases of Infancy. — Infants at their birth have 
an acrid matter in their bowels called meconium, which 
the midwife or nurse is anxious to see come away, and 
children (while infants,) are drenched with some purga- 
tive medicine for this purpose, no doubt, when, indeed, 
none ought to be used ; the mother's milk will, in most 
cases, cause a discharge from the bowels where there is 
no deficiency or malformation. If no discharge takes 
place within twenty-four hours, an injection of sweet 
milk and water or the mucilage of slippery- elm, milk- 
warm, will answer as well, and perhaps better than pur- 
gative medicines. A small syringe well oiled and care- 
fully inserted can be used. 

Infant's Sore Mouth. — In this disease there is 
a thick white covering over the tongue and sides 
of the lips resembling milk curds. Rub this off with 
fine bayberry bark and loaf sugar, and then cover the 
tongue with prepared chalk and loaf sugar, and let the 
child swallow it or a part of it ; repeat this once or twice 
a day for a short time, and it will usually cure this af- 
fection. 

Colic, Griping, Green Stools, etc. — From a weak 
condition of the stomach and from undigested food, 
acidity is produced in the stomach and bowels of chil- 
dren, causing colicky pains, griping, etc., which is at- 
tended very frequently with a greenish mucous discharge. 
To relieve this, give a little tea made of bayberry and 



colic. 137 

ginger, a tea-spoonful of bayberry and one-half of ginger 
to a cup of boiling water ; when cool or nearly so sweeten 
well with loaf sugar, then give from one to three table- 
spoonfuls at a time, with five or six drops of the tincture 
of lobelia, or as much of the lobelia powder as will lie 
on the point of a small penknife ; to be repeated two or 
three times daily. If it is colic without the green dis- 
charge, give calamus or ginger tea with from two to ten 
drops, according to age, of the anodyne drops in the tea. 
Children that are subject to attacks of colic, and a dis- 
ordered state of bowels, ought to use spicewood tea ; 
make a tea of the twigs of spicewood, and add milk and 
clarified sugar enough to make it palatable, and use it as 
food, especially where the child has to be fed much. It 
will strengthen the digestive powers, purify the blood 
and supersede the use of almost all other medicines. 
The -virtue and merits of the spicewood have perhaps 
never been appreciated by medical men as they deserve. 
It is a matter of doubt with me, whether its virtues have 
ever been properly tested, or its merits clearly under- 
stood by medical authors, at least I have never seen that 
account of it, or that meed of praise awarded to it, that 
I am convinced it fairly deserves. In purifying the 
blood of children from ill humors, and in strengthening 
the digestive powers, I have witnessed its good effects for 
upwards of thirty years ; I have used it, and recommended 
its use, both in public practice and in private families, 
and have no cause to regret its use or to complain of its 
failure. I therefore confidently recommend its use in 
all cases where children have to be raised by hand, 
weak stomachs, or humors in the blood. It may be used 
without the least dread or fear of danger. 



138 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Cholera Infantum ; or, Puking and Purging of Chil- 
dren.— This disease is usually brought on by an acid 
collection in the stomach, or foul secretions ; to relieve 
which, give a gentle emetic of lobelia in bayberry and 
ginger tea. Then give one or two tea-spoonfuls of the 
neutralizing mixture at a dose, and repeat every hour, 
or less time, until relief is obtained or until eight or ten 
doses have been taken. This will rarely fail to give re- 
lief; but if a cure is not effected, give bayberry and gin- 
ger tea in table-spoonful doses, repeated every half hour 
for three or four hours ; then give three or four doses of 
the neutralizing mixture again, and bathe the child in 
warm water with soda or hickory ashes enough to make 
the water slick. Injections of composition or bayb erry 
tea are good, and sometimes necessary. This course 
will usually effect a cure. 

Teething. — During the time children are teething, 
or cutting teeth, their health is precarious and uncertain ; 
the nervous irritation caused by cutting teeth, almost 
always affects the general health to a greater or less ex- 
tent, but as it is a natural operation, the treatment 
should be to aid nature, and such remedies used as the 
symptoms demand. If the system is feverish, relax it in 
proportion to the rage of the fever. If the stomach is 
foul and become unsettled, give a puke. If the bowels 
run off, give the neutralizing mixture, and then com- 
position or bayberry and ginger tea ; bathe the child 
and give injections of bayberry, witch-hazel or cranes- 
bill. If the gums become inflamed and swelled, let 
them be cut down to the tooth or teeth, give sweating 
teas, etc. The use of the spicewood at meals or at 



TEETHING. 139 

night, during the time of cutting teeth, will greatly aid 
in warding off bad consequences arising therefrom. 
Pure air, gentle exercise with wholesome food, are also 
requisite. Children sometimes have spasms or Jits dur- 
ing dentition, or teething, arising no doubt from nervous 
irritation, either directly or indirectly. In cases of 
spasms give lobelia freely, promptly and unhesitatingly ; 
relax the system and the spasms will cease. If you can- 
not give it by the mouth, give it by injections, and ap- 
ply it as a poultice to the stomach ; no dread or fear need 
be entertained, if it be necessary to give one, two, or 
three tea-spoonfuls during the day, or twelve hours. If 
the fits cease and the child commences throwing up, re- 
move the external application ; or if it seems to become 
feeble, remove it ; but let it sleep as long as four or five 
hours, and when it arises and takes what is necessary, 
and falls asleep, let it have its nap. Cold applications 
to the head and warm feet-bathing is a good course ; 
but do not hesitate to relax the system with lobelia ; 
spasms and relaxation are incompatible. 

The following is set down as the general order of 
cutting teeth : the first four front teeth are usually cut 
from the fifth to the eighth month, and from the seventh 
to the tenth the other four ; from the twelfth to the six- 
teenth month, the four back teeth ; from the fourteenth 
to the twentieth month the eye teeth, and the corres- 
ponding under teeth ; from the eighteenth to the thirty- 
sixth month the four molars or jaw teeth. These twenty 
are called milk teeth which are generally shed and re- 
newed. The order as above arranged is not uniform. 
Perhaps much of the disorder arising to children during 
teething may depend upon the unusual quantity of food 



140 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

taken into the stomach. The irritation caused by the 
pressure of the teeth against the gums causes the child 
often perhaps to eat more than is necessary, and from 
its fretfulness, the mother to quiet it gives it the breast 
when it would not be done otherwise ; and from these 
causes the child's stomach is filled with more food than 
can properly be digested, and which itself becomes a 
cause of disease. Mothers ought to remember this. 

Remarks on Raising Children. — Children should be 
clothed from their birth with warm soft clothing, sufficient 
to keep them comfortable, according to the temperature of 
the season and climate ; but by no means ought they to 
have a superabundance of clothing on them; neither 
should their clothes be put on in the least degree bind- 
ing. This is to be observed during infancy and child- 
hood. Infants should not be carried too much in the 
arms of their nurses ; and very special care should be 
taken that their stomach and bowels do not press against 
the nurse, for a length of time together. When it is 
necessary to carry them in the arms of the nurses, let 
them be carried in an easy position. Sitting in the lap 
and dandling on the knees are proper exercise ; dand- 
ling on the knees will cause the child to use its arms 
and legs, which is a benefit to it. As soon as the child 
can crawl or walk, it is not prudent to keep it always 
in the arms or lap of the nurse, but let it often make its 
own exertions, only keep it out of danger. When chil- 
dren can run about, do not confine them too much in the 
house, but permit them to run about and amuse them- 
selves with new scenes ; it will expand the mind, give 
suppleness to their joint3 and strengthen their limbs, 



REMARKS ON RAISING CHILDREN. 141 

but guard them from danger and bad weather ; mark 
this do not keep the mind or body of a child cramped. 
The diet for children should be light and nourishing ; 
eating frequently, but not much at a time, gradually 
bringing them to regular meals as they grow and are 
able to bear the change. If the mother is healthy, her 
milk is doubtless the best food for the child, because an 
allwise Creator has established it for that purpose, and 
nothing ought to take its place for a length of time un- 
til nature gives evidence that it is prepared for stronger 
food ; cutting of teeth is an indication that other food 
is being demanded ; milks, broths, pot-liquor (if' you 
will allow the term), bread, butter, gravy and meat, is a 
good order to be observed, combining these as reason 
may dictate. Children should be kept cheerful and play- 
ful, having their minds amused with innocent amusement. 
And while I am treating upon physical prudence, suffer 
me a little to touch upon moral prudence, as they are 
somewhat connected together. 

While you are endeavoring to raise your children 
with health and strength, remember that you are di- 
rectly acting as stewards to God. Therefore, as with 
health and strength, so let them be brought up in the 
fear and admonition of the Lord. Parents, then, in giv- 
ing instruction should govern their children with mild- 
ness and yet in firmness. In order, therefore, it would 
seem, to enable parents to be the better stewards or 
governors of their children, a gracious and an all- wise 
Creator has implanted in the bosom of man a love and 
care for his offspring above all other living beings ; 
having the power to reason, and having the benefit of 
experience, and the revealed word of God as a guide, 



142 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

with this tender love and care as a guard, where could 
we expect to find one better qualified to act the part of 
faithful and good stewards in things pertaining to this 
life than parents to their children ? and yet, alas ! how 
many bad endings may be traced to the want of proper 
and correct training during childhood and youth. For 
the good of children, will not parents consider the obli- 
gations they are under in this respect ? Where are the 
love and fear of God ? Where are the love and care of 
children ? Have they no power ? have they no influence ? 
Hear, therefore, the promises of the Scriptures, and 
listen to their commands in this respect. " Train up a 
child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will 
not depart from it." Pro v. xxii. 6. Is this the word of truth 
without the possibility of a failure? Surely it is ! Now 
for directions tarn to Bph. vi. 4 " Fathers, provoke not 
your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord." Col. iii. 21. From these scrip- 
tures it is evident that parents ought not to scold and 
fret for every small foible of children, neither threaten 
them much ; some children by a bitter and morose course 
of treatment become discouraged, dejection and despond- 
ency get hold of them ; under such circumstances the 
blood does not have free and proper circulation, their 
health becomes impaired, and a lasting foundation of 
disease or a premature death is doubtless the result in 
many cases. On the other hand, this blustering, threat- 
ening and morose course of* treatment, sometimes begets 
a like ungovernable passion in the child or children, 
which causes them to go in forbidden paths until they 
become hardened in vice, and from one step of diso- 
bedience and dissipation to another, may end in ruin and 



REMARKS ON RAISING CHILDREN, 143 

perhaps find a premature grave. Neither ought parents 
to cuff and whip their children much, for this is unneces- 
sary where the rule is observed to govern in love and 
wisdom, with mildness and firmness. The child should 
first have a clear understanding of what wrong is ; and 
then to know that to reprove or correct for doing wrong 
is an evidence of the love of the parent to the child 
and a duty to God. In this way the child or children 
would often be cheerful and lively after reproof or cor- 
rection, and would willingly kiss the hand that bore the 
rod, and guard against it in future ; but without ob- 
serving this rule, and beat and cuff or scold and threat, 
the child or children not knowing why or wherefore, the 
evil consequences of desperation may reasonably be 
feared, that is, the child will either sink heart-broken 
into despondency or death, or else fly off into deep 
vices. And parents should remember also, not to let 
their own love and sympathy for the child or children 
turn them from obeying God's command, to lay on the 
rod when it is absolutely necessary. The hand should 
not falter with the rod in it, when God says lay it on. 
Remember Abraham when God told him to offer Isaac ; 
see how he faltered not. Gen. xxii. 10. God says, " Spare 
the rod and spoil the child ;" again he says, Prov. xix. 18, 
" Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul 
spare for his crying ;" again, same book, xiii. 24. he 
says, " He that spare th his rod, hateth his son ; " again, 
the same book, xxix. 17, he says, " Correct thy son 
and he shail give thee rest." But for the want of observ- 
ing these commands, how often has it been witnessed 
that the child or children, after having received a posi- 
tive prohibition or command, with a severe threat, in 



144 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

order to show how little they regard it, go and do the 
very thing forbidden, or act right to the reverse of the 
command, and if the threat is attempted to be carried 
out, either in pretense or otherwise, the child would fall 
into the most ungovernable passion ; cry and bawl and 
tear its clothes, and in one instance, witnessed by the 
author, to bite its own arm, to show its resentment to 
its parents. Yet the tender-hearted but indiscreet 
mother, not remembering what God has commanded, or 
not remembering that she is under obligation to observe 
it, will often commence begging and threatening alter- 
nately to get the child to hush, and then hire it and per- 
suade it to become reconciled again. Oh, frail humanity, 
and misguided love ! what are thy trophies ? Some 
children are naturally ungovernable in their disposition 
under any treatment, and in the law of Moses a clause 
is inserted requiring capital punishment against such, 
and we ought to be thankful that these are few and far 
between, while we should blush to know that most who 
become ungovernable are made so for the want of 
proper government. But whether the child is naturally 
ungovernable, or becomes so for the want of proper 
training, whenever it gets angry or falls into these un- 
warrantable rages at hearing reproof or receiving a 
command, a ply of peach tree, or willow switches judi- 
ciously applied in proper portions to the nates and lower 
extremities, will in most cases act like a charm in equal- 
izing the circulation and determining the blood from the 
brain ; in other words, it will cure the child of the fit 
of madness, and soon restore it to a perfect state of 
good humor and cheerfulness again. (Do not tamper too 
much with such palliatives as begging, hiring and per- 



REMARKS ON RAISING CHILDREN. 145 

suading, lest the fits terminate in insanity.) Nothing is 
more agreeable in a family circle, than to see children 
well governed, obedient, cheerful and healthy, all dwell- 
ing together in love and unity. But the reverse is 
truly mortifying. I have made these remarks on moral 
training in connection with my subject for two reasons : 
first, because we should do all that we do to the glory 
of God ; secondly, because I am convinced from obser- 
vation, that imprudent passions indulged, and immoral 
conduct, have much influence over the health of the 
body. The Scripture says, " Be not over-much wicked, 
neither be thou foolish : why shouldst thou die before 
thy time ? " Eccl. vii. 17. My desire is that my readers 
may appreciate it properly. 

Children ought to be kept from filthiness and as clean 
and decent as their playfulness or business will admit, 
without fastidiousness or too much nicety ; it is best for 
them to play and amuse themselves, even if they do get 
a little dirty. These remarks are made from long ob- 
servation, with full confidence of their correctness. When 
children are washed all over, the water ought not to be 
too cool, very little under blood-heat is as cool as it 
ought to be, particularly if the child has been exercising. 
Cold applications are best made in the morning. Per- 
haps there are as many children that are made subject to 
disease through fastidiousness or too much niceness as 
there are from filthiness, and in all probability more in 
proportion to the number that go into these extremes ; 
yet both are wrong. As a general rule, to wash the 
hands, face and feet once a day, and general washing, or 
washing all over, once or twice a week, is sufficient. 



146 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

week is enough. Occasionally, however, circumstances 
may render it necessary to vary this rule. 

Chafing. — Infants and young children become 
chafed, or the skin excoriates and comes off about the 
neck, ears, armpits, under the thighs, groins, etc. This 
will in general be relieved by applying scorched lint or 
cotton, with starch flour of meal sprinkled over it ; tar- 
water is good ; comfrey-root, scraped and stewed in 
cream, is very good, especially if the parts are much in- 
flamed. 

Diseases of the Brain. — Children are subject to 
diseases of the brain from early months of infancy 
to the thirteenth or fourteenth year of age, but the 
symptoms attending which are equivocal and uncer- 
tain. These are grouped under four heads : first, con- 
gestion upon the brain ; second, watery infusion or dropsy 
of the brain ; third, softening of the brain ; and lastly, 
wanting nervous energy, or enervation. A dull, sleepy, 
senseless condition, or a comatose state, is often manifest 
at some stage of the most, if not all, of these different 
forms of disease. Under this complication and uncer- 
tainty, no doubt many a poor little sufferer has been 
freed from pain by passing the ordeal of the last of time 
through misguided judgment and misapplied remedies. 
To resort to depletion under any or either of these forms 
of disease, would doubtless be very hazardous, except 
perhaps some instances of congestion, and even that 
would be uncertain, for if depletion in congestion is re- 
sorted to, it will very probably change the form to watery 
effusions, softening or enervation. Therefore let the 



RICKETS. 147 

treatment be such as will sustain the vital energy. Warm 
bathing to the hips or up to the armpits, and drink at 
the same time some relaxing sweating teas, as catnip, 
balm, and sage with ginger and lobelia, and relieving the 
bowels by stimulating injections of composition, etc., and 
by applying cold water with salt or vinegar in it, or cold 
water tolerably freely used alone, is a safe and salutary 
course. A puke at the outset is frequently demanded or 
indicated ; broken doses of lobelia in the teas, through- 
out the whole course of the disease, is necessary ; bath- 
ing ought to be resorted to once or twice daily, and the 
injections repeated two or three times if the urgency of 
the case demands it ; the injections may be composed of 
composition, bayberry, shumac, beth-root, or crane's-bill, 
with ginger, pepper, No. 6, or the compound preparation 
of lobelia, enough to make it tolerably stimulating, say 
from a quarter to a full tea-spoonful of either of the 
liquids, according to the age and size of the child, is 
usually sufficient ; but where the injections are repeated 
often, let them be changed half the times for slippery- 
elm or milk and gruel injections. 

Rickets. — There is a disease sometimes manifest 
among children called Rickets. This is a consequence of 
original weakness in most cases ; yet it is said to be 
produced from other causes, as lying on damp places, un- 
wholesome food, etc. The term is applied to a distorted 
or unhealthy condition of the bones ; and as the bones, 
as well as other parts of the system are nourished and 
supported from the blood, and as the blood is derived 
from food by digestion in the stomach, and as the stom- 
ach must be in a healthy condition to produce pure blood 



148 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

from food, it is presumable that the stomach in this case 
is in a feeble or weak condition, and that before the dis- 
ease can be removed the stomach must be strengthened ; 
to do which, emetics, tonics, and warm bathing must be 
resorted to in the early stages. Emetics once a week, 
warm bathing at night, daily, tonics during the day ; to 
very young children the spice-wood tea with milk and 
sugar is a very good tonic ; as the age of the child is in- 
creased, stronger tonics ought to be used, as poplar bark, 
Virginia or black-snake root, spice bitters, peruvian 
bark, etc. The poplar, dogwood and peruvian barks, 
pounded fine, and in small sacks or folds put in a jacket 
and worn next the skin, act finely as a tonic, and bene- 
ficial in this case — from an eighth to a full tea-spoonful 
of any of the above barks is a dose. Bathing in salt 
water, tepid or cold, of a morning, is a good tonic, 
where there is strength enough to bring about a reaction 
in due time, and it ought to be used ; when needed, re- 
lieve the bowels by injections. 

Fluor Albus ; Lucorrhcea, or Whites . — This com- 
plaint is most generally brought on from debility, falling 
of the womb or excess in venera, but it may be brought 
on from various other causes tending to weaken the ute- 
rine functions, and is liable to occur at almost any stage 
of life, from the girl to the aged matron, but it most 
usually takes place after womanhood. 

Treatment — This disease requires tonics and bracing 
remedies. If the case has much debility with foul stom- 
ach, two, three, or four pukes given in strong bayberry 
and ginger tea, or composition, will be beneficial, after 



FLUOR ALBUS. 149 

which give bitters : bayberry or shumac, one part, and 
the same of poplar bark ; unicorn (not the star grass) and 
myrrh, one- third; ginger, one half, and cloves, one-eighth; 
cayenne, a smaller portion, all pounded fine, sieved 
through muslin and well mixed ; of this compound take 
a heaping tea-spoonful, with as much loaf sugar, in a cup 
half full of tepid water, before breakfast and before din- 
ner ; at night take a tea-spoonful of the following com- 
pound : Mix equal parts of bayberry, beth-root and gin- 
ger, which is to be put in a cupful of boiling water, 
steeped till nearly cool, sweetened and drank on going 
to bed ; inject with a female syringe, once or twice daily, 
a very strong decoction of the following compound : 
witch-hazel, shumac leaves or bayberry-root, equal ; pop- 
lar-bark, of the root a little more, cayenne pepper, one- 
eighth ; this injection is to be used cool or nearly so. If 
there is much pain and weakness in the lower part of the 
back and hips, use a common strengthening plaster to 
the back ; this can be prepared by sawing up pine-roots 
that have been bruised in crossing the road, boiling and 
skimming and spreading on cloth until it is sufficiently 
covered ; if the discharges are acrid and offensive after 
the strengthening plaster has come off, or before it is 
put on, make a sack or pad to fit the lower part of the 
abdomen or belly, from the navel down, and extend to 
the sides ; tsvo pieces of cloth are to be cut to fit, and 
of the same size, one piece to be thin and the other more 
thick, and sewed together, so as to leave little sacks 
about three-quarters of an inch apart, running cross- 
wise ; these sacks or vacancies are to be filled with a 
compound made of dogwood-root bark, made fine, tansy, 
dried and pounded, and peruvian bark, equal parts ; uni- 



150 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

corn and star-grass, each one-fourth, the thin side applied 
next to the skin and fastened round the hips with straps, 
and if need be let a strap be applied from before and 
fastened behind ; let this be worn two or three weeks, 
and in some cases it had best be removed. Injections 
of composition to the bowels ought to be used when cos- 
tive. Gentle exercise, cheerful company and nourishing 
diet are all good and necessary ; but not much walking 
on damp ground ; avoid as much as possible the predis- 
posing causes. The beth-root and unicorn are important 
in this case, and the witch-hazel injections to the birth- 
place ought not to be omitted. 

Falling op the Womb. — Prolapsus Uteri. — This 
and the foregoing disease are perhaps more common 
among the sufferings of women than any other strictly 
termed disease. It is most common among women who 
have borne children, yet others are not exempt from it. 
Women of a relaxed muscular habit are more liable to 
it ; heavy straining, rapid leaping or jumping, long 
standing, etc., are causes to produce falling of the womb. 
Improper conduct in forcing away the after-birth, and 
too early rising from bed after delivery, are perhaps the 
most common causes, and produce more extensive dis- 
placements than any other. Midwives and doctors some- 
times want to do their work quick. Women some- 
times love to, and are frequently advised to get up or 
sit up too soon, when they feel tolerably well, which 
ought to be guarded against. In the treatment of this 
complaint, if the system is feverish, with a furred tongue, 
give a puke one or two days, but let the woman have a 
bandage on when she pukes. Then take the following 



FALLING OF THE WOMB. 151 

compound (called woman's friend) : gum myrrh, unicorn- 
root, poplar-bark root, golden seal and bayberry bark, 
each four ounces, all finely pulverized and well mixed ; 
cayenne, cloves and ginger, each half an ounce; add two 
pounds white sugar, all combined ; of this take a tea- 
spoonful in a cup two-thirds full of luke-warm or cold 
water twice a day ; rest, in a lying position, to a limited 
extent, is refreshing ; but this must not be indulged in 
to too great an extent — one-third of the day at different 
times is as much, perhaps, as will be found beneficial. 
The bowels must be relieved by injections, when costive, 
and not by purgative medicines ; charcoal, very fine, 
taken in composition tea, will frequently prove beneficial 
and prevent costiveness, taken in tea-spoonful doses. A 
very strong decoction of shumac, witch-hazel and bay- 
berry used cold by injections to the vagina or birth- 
place, with a female syringe, is beneficial, to give tone 
and strengthen the parts. Oak ooze, strong with a little 
alum, is also good. This complaint is always cured for 
the time when pregnancy takes place. A pelvic jacket, 
or pad, similar to the one mentioned under the foregoing 
disease, the whites, exercises a powerful influence in 
strengthening the parts and aiding conception. Several 
cases where women apparently had ceased to breed, from 
this and the above disease, have improved and have 
borne children, and are doing well from this treatment ; 
the only difference between this pad or jacket, and the 
one above mentioned, is to add a fourth more unicorn 
and witch-hazel, equal to the first named ingredients — 
say dogwood, poplar, tansy, peruvian bark and witch- 
hazel, two tea-spoonfuls each (or two parts), and unicorn, 
one part, and star grass, one-half (or one-fourth part). 



152 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

After child-birth, let the astringent injections, as above 
mentioned, with a female syringe, be used in particular, 
and the woman keep in bed for two or three weeks at 
least. Where pregnancy does not take place, let the 
pelvic jacket, as above described, be worn with, a belt 
fastened in front, going over the birth-place and buck- 
ling behind, or vice versa, or else use a pessary, properly 
adjusted. The injections used to the birth-place ought 
to be made strong — say an ounce of the above compound, 
or of any one of the articles, to three half pints of boil- 
ing water, and steeped till cool, will perhaps be suffi- 
ciently strong. 

Change of Life ; or, Cessation of the Menses. — This 
usually takes place from the forty-fifth to the fiftieth year 
of age. It is generally viewed as a critical period of 
age. It is not, however, attended with as much danger 
as is frequently supposed ; yet chronic affections do 
sometimes appear to originate in or from that change, 
and perhaps acute diseases may be a little more severe 
when occurring about that period ; but on the other 
hand, it is frequently the harbinger of good health. 
The discharges sometimes cease almost all at once ; 
sometimes more gradually, while with others they go off 
very irregular, both as to time and the quantity of the 
discharge. In some cases there will be a cessation for 
months, and then a rapid and powerful flow ; and the 
dread that is often experienced augments the affection, 
and perhaps hysterical fits may be produced, or other 
nervous symptoms. 

The treatment in this case must be according to symp- 
toms : for nervous affections, give the anodyne drops in 



STEAM-BATHING. 153 

half or full tea-spoonful doses ; for irregular and exces- 
sive flows, use astringents and tonics (see Excessive Men- 
struation) ; for the general health, take the lady's spice 
bitters or woman's friend, the lobelia pills after meals, 
and composition at night. Believe the bowels by injec- 
tions. If risings or any other form of disease manifest 
itself, treat it according to symptoms. 

Steam-Bathing and Injections or Enemas. — Why 
these two very potent, simple, and harmless auxilia- 
ries to the removal of disease have run into discredit 
and disuse is hard to solve or account for. Do the 
doctors not know their uses, or have prejudices arisen 
under some affected view of indecency? No such 
affectation is proper, for they may be attended to 
without putting to blush the most fastidious observer ; 
but if it were otherwise, why should we allow our fel- 
low beings either to suffer or die, for fear of raising 
a blush to the cheek of the healthy ? Such is false 
modesty, not worthy to be allowed among a Christian or 
an enlightened people. Steam-bathing may be resorted 
to with benefit, under almost any form of disease, es- 
pecially in some of its stages, and in many cases it 
ought hardly ever be dispensed with. Many apparatuses 
have been constructed to give a steam bath, but where 
these are not at hand to give a steam bath, use a basin 
or a small tub, fill it three or four inches deep with 
hot water, place it under a stool or before a chair with 
a board across the top for the feet to rest upon, let the 
patient have his clothes off and a quilt wrapped around 
him from his neck down, and pinned or held so as to ex- 
clude the air from the body and retain the vapor. The 
7* 



154 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

quilt or cover must go down to the floor incircling the 
tub or vessel ; the person giving the bath must then put 
a brick, or rock, or a piece of iron, previously made hot, 
into the vessel containing the water, being careful to 
raise the edge of the quilt, or other cover, and having 
the feet placed a little one side, if the vessel is in front 
of the chair, so as to let the heat escape, which arises 
from the first ebullition or boiling, and as soon as the 
heat is lowered so as to be borne, let the quilt gradual- 
ly down, keeping the hand and bare arm under it so 
as to determine the degree of heat, and also to raise the 
quilt if too hot ; turn the brick over as it cools. The 
second, (or if it is a piece of brick or small rock) some- 
times the third may be used before the patient gets off 
the bath, but in applying the second or third, observe 
the same precaution as to the degree of heat. While 
the patient is over the bath be sure to let him drink 
warm teas, such as composition, ginger tea, sage, mint, 
or catnip tea with ginger or pepper in it ; he may take 
a half pint or more while over the bath, but best taken 
at different times, say half a cupful at a time five or 
seven minutes between ; wet his face and temples fre- 
quently with cool water ; he may also drink a swallow or 
two of cool water, if he desires it, several times, and if 
there is much fever his breast may be wet with a cool 
wet rag or towel ; he may remain over the bath from 
fifteen to thirty minutes ;.wipe dry and put to bed after 
the steaming is over ; drink warm teas, and apply a hot 
brick or rock in damp cloths to his feet. The steam 
bath is useful in the early stages of typhoid fever, pneu- 
monia, pleurisy, bowel complaint, puerperal diseases of 
women, etc. 



ENEMAS. 155 

To give a corn sweat, fill a pot that will hold twelve 
or fifteen good large ears of corn with water and put 
the corn in it ; boil rapidly for one or two hours • take 
the corn out while hot, and wrap about three ears to- 
gether in several folds of cloth, and apply as hot as can 
be borne to the feet, legs, nates and sides of the patient, 
letting them go nearer to the patient as he can bear it ; 
when all are not used at once, let the feet have the 
preference and the nates next, etc. This kind of a 
sweat may be used advantageously where the patient 
cannot sit up. 

Enemas or Injections are indicated in all cases where 
the patient is too weak, or it is thought not advisable to 
give purgative medicines, and the lower bowels need 
evacuation, and indeed perhaps in half the cases where 
purgative medicines are used injections would be pref- 
erable. Injections may be prepared of various substan- 
ces ; composition tea with a half to a whole tea-spoonful 
of lobelia in it makes as good an injection as any other. 
A syringe that will contain eight or ten ounces, will be 
sufficient in most cases, and every family ought to have 
one kept in good working order. To use it let the 
syringe be drawn full and hold the point upwards, and 
push up the handle slowly, until it squirts the contents a 
little, this is done to push out the air before you insert 
it, and to ascertain whether it has filled itself or not ; if 
the handle goes up an inch or more before it squirts 
any of its contents you must put it in the liquid and 
draw again, and repeat the same course until you know 
it is nearly or quite full of liquid and emptied of air, it 
not being over blood heat ; you will then cover the pipe 



156 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

point with sweet oil, lard, or cream, cause the patient 
to draw up his knees a little, and insert the point of the 
syringe with a very gentle, turning motion, until it is 
fully entered, keeping the syringe nearly in a line with 
the back, bearing the point, if any difference, slightly 
towards the front of the patient, then push out the con- 
tents with a tolerable degree of force, and as you with- 
draw the instrument, press the sides of the buttocks until 
the muscles can contract on it. Every head of a family 
ought to understand this operation ; it is simple, useful, 
and safe. The mucilage of slippery elm, soap-suds, 
syrup and water, or any herb teas, may be used for an 
injection. 



MATEEIA MEDICA, 

Or an Account of such Medicines as are recommended in 
this Work. 

It may be proper here to remark that roots should be 
gathered in the fall, after the tops are dry, or before the 
sap rises in the spring. Barks may be stripped at any 
time of the year, and the inside only used. Plants are 
best gathered while in blossom, yet many retain their 
virtue until they begin to wither. All or mostly all 
should be dried in the shade, and great care taken that 
they do not mould, and when thoroughly dry they should 
be kept close from the air. 

Unicorn — Helonias Dioica — and called by various 
other names, as maiden's relief, grub-root, button snake- 
root, blazing star, d.evil ; s bite, etc. This little root 
possesses excellent tonic properties. The root as seen in 
this country is generally small, from a half an inch to an 
inch in length, and from a quarter, or less, to a half inch 
in thickness ; it is rough and sometimes crooked, and the 
lower, or older end, rots off, leaving the root blunt or 
like it was broken. From three to six leaves continue 
green all the winter, lying close to the ground, from two 
to four inches long in this country, but the root and 
leaves grow larger in other sections. In the spring it 
runs up a slender stem, sometimes a foot or more high, 

(157) 



158 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

and has a rather drooping spike of flowers of a dusky- 
white three or four inches long. This root I have found 
to possess extraordinary properties in the treatment of 
the complaint in females called painful menstruation, 
so much so that I am not sure but it ought to be classed 
also in the list of nervines. The dose in this case is 
from one to two grains with a tea-spoonful of anodyne 
drops, in some sweating teas, repeated in from thirty 
to forty minutes. I do not recollect that this has ever 
failed in my hands at the third dose ; the second has 
more usually given prompt relief. 

Camomile — Anihemis N'obilis. — This garden herb is 
worthy to be cultivated ; the flowers are used ; they are 
good in hysterics, colics, cramps, etc. It is also used as 
a tea in which emetics are given to assist their operation ; 
used mostly in teas. 

Paesley. — This is also a garden plant used in cookery. 
It is a valuable diuretic ; in cases of obstructed urine or 
difficulty in making water, make a strong tea and drink 
freely ; it is good in dropsy. 

Bitter Root — Apocynum Androsemiofolium. — The 
bark of the root of this plant is a good laxative bitter ; 
take an ounce of the root and put it into a pint of boil- 
ing water ; let it stand an hour and strain ; two or three 
table-spoonfuls three times a day, will be a good laxative 
tonic. In a torpid state of the liver, this is a good 
remedy, it may be tinctured in good spirits for the same 
complaint, or for jaundice, two ounces of the root bruised, 
to a quart of spirits ; dose as above or enough to pro- 
duce a laxative state of the bowels. 



PRICKLY ASH, ETC. 159 

Prickly Ash — Xanihovcylum. — It grows in rich low 
lands, from ten to fifteen feet high ; the bark when 
chewed and swallowed, produces a pungent or burning 
sensation, which seems rather to increase than diminish 
for a considerable time. This is good in rheumatisms, 
and in an unhealthy state of the system, where it is sub- 
ject to easily created sores ; it may be taken in infusion 
or decoction ; dose thirty grains to the half pint of 
water ; or it may be taken in tincture, two ounces of the 
bark to a quart of good spirits ; two or three table- 
spoonfuls a dose twice a-day. 

Burdock — Arctium Lappa. — The burdock grows 
mostly in fence rows, the road-sides, etc. Its seeds are 
inclosed in a burr which sticks easily to clothes, etc. It 
has a large rough leaf, and goes to seed the second or 
third year ; the top dies in winter. The root of this 
plant is good in scrofulous affections. It may be used to 
assist to purify the blood, etc. Bruise the root and boil 
two ounces of it in a quart of water for thirty or forty 
minutes, sweeten with lump or loaf sugar, and drink a 
pint during the day. 

Virginia Snakeroot — Serpentaria Virginica. — Called 
black snake-root, etc. The stem is two to four inches 
high ; has a bunch of little fibrous roots, which is fre- 
quently dug by children to smell of. It is a good stimu- 
lant tonic, sudorific, etc. It may be used as a sweating 
tea ; three or four bunches of the roots to a cup of boil- 
ing water repeated two or three times during the day. 

Indian Turnip — Arum Triphyllum. — This root re- 



160 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

cently gathered, is good in asthma, for cough and other 
affections of the bronchi or upper part of the lungs. It 
grows in swamps, or rich low lands. 

Milk Weed — Asdepias Syriaca. — It is usually a 
single stalk and the leaves immediately opposite to each 
other ; grows two feet high and sometimes more ; has a 
long pod of downy seeds. The root is generally five or 
six inches below the surface and runs horizontally, or 
about the same distance from top of the ground for seve- 
ral feet, sending up occasionally another stalk ; the root 
usually about or nearly the size of the stalk. It is a 
good diuretic and with queen-of-the-meadow is very 
good for the gravel, taken either in tea or tinctured in 
gin ; a wine glass full three or four times a day. 

Butterfly Weed— Asdepias Tuberosa.—The butter- 
fly weed grows in bunches mostly, and has a rough tap 
or long root growing downwards. The flowers are of 
a bright orange color. The stalks from a foot, to a foot 
and a-half high. This root has many excellent medicinal 
qualities. Its sweating properties perhaps are the most 
prominent; it is also a good expectorant, and acts 
slightly upon the bowels. In colds, pleurisies and pneu- 
monia affections, it is rarely excelled. Dose of the root (of 
the butterfly) in decoction, teaspoonful to half pint of 
boiling water, in substance finely powdered from two 
to four grains, repeated three or four times daily ; taken 
in tea. 

Wormwood — Artemisia Absinthium. — This is a gar- 
den plant, perhaps worthy to be cultivated as a medi- 



GARLIC, ETC. 161 

cinal plant. It is tonic ; good to medicate a sweating 
bath ; used in poultices, etc. It is thought to be good 
for worms. 

G-arlic — Allium Sativum. — The bulb, or root, bruised 
and scalded in hot water, and applied to the bottoms of 
the feet is an excellent auxiliary to remove pain in deep 
seated cold, pleurisies and pneumonias. It may also be 
applied to the back, or seat of pain. (Onions may be 
used for the same purpose). It is said to be good for 
worms stewed in milk, an ounce to the pint, or bruised 
and applied to the stomach and bowels. 

Myrrh, The Gum — Is an excellent stimulant, tonic, 
and antiseptic. It may be used in powder or tincture ; 
three ounces of pulverized myrrh to a quart of alcohol, 
or good spirits, forms a good tincture. (ISTo. 6 is called 
compound tincture of myrrh). In powder it is best 
combined with other tonics. 

Calamus, Sweet Flag — Acorus Calamus. — Grows in 
wet places (mostly cultivated or planted), and resembles 
the flag, but may easily be distinguished from the latter 
by smelling the leaf when broken. Calamus tea is good 
for wind colics, especially for children. 

Cayenne Pepper — Capsicum Annum. — Cayenne pep- 
per is among the best (if not the very best) materials or 
(native) stimulants now known ; it seems to be devoid of 
any escharotic qualities, hence its uses are very exten- 
sive. There are several kinds or species of red pepper, 
but all possess the same properties, the small kind 



162 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

is usually esteemed the strongest, the strength being 
concentrated in a smaller compass. Pepper enters into 
many valuable compounds. That pepper corrodes the 
stomach and produces inflammation is too palpable a mis- 
take to need any effort here to rebut. Witness the Mex- 
icans in their hot, torrid region, living upon it as the 
basis of their daily food. 

Lady's Slipper — Nervine, Valerian, Oypripedium. — 
There are four varieties of the Lady's Slipper possess- 
ing much the same virtues. It is a good nervine taken 
either in tea or in substance ; a spoonful is a dose. It is 
the basis of the Anodyne Drops. 

Charcoal — Carbon. — May be used as medicine when 
properly burned and finely pulverized and sifted through 
fine cloth. It is a good anti-acid and antiseptic ; in 
some stages of bowel complaints its effects are power- 
ful ; dose, tea-spoonful. 

Wormseed — Ghenopodium . — Called also Jerusalem 
oak. This plant is perhaps well known to every farmer. 
It grows in rich spots about old buildings, in fence rows, 
etc. The name of this plant indicates its uses. The 
seeds of this plant, when collected early in the fall after 
they are ripe, as well as an oil obtained from it, are used. 
It forms the basis, or is taken into almost every famed 
vermifuge extant in the country. The seeds powdered 
and taken in from twenty to forty grains doses in syrup 
or honey, before breakfast and at bedtime, for three or 
four days, will frequently remove worms ; sometimes it 
will be best to follow its use with a dose of oil ; the 



BLACK COHOSH, ETC. 163 

dose is for a child two or three years old, give more for 
children five or six years old. 

Black Cohosh — Batrophis or Cimicifuga Racemosa. — 
Called, also, rattle-weed, squaw-weed, etc. This is a 
good anti-spasmodic tonic and emmenagogue : dose in 
powder from ten to twenty grains ; in tincture, from 
one to three spoonfuls ; in tea prepared from an ounce 
of the powder to a pint of boiling water, from one to 
three table-spoonfuls, repeated every three or four hours 
or as circumstances may require. Over doses produce 
pain in the head, and sometimes great relaxation. An 
ounce of this root, the same of the root-bark of the 
white-ash or gray-head, and an ounce of gum-guiacum 
all finely pulverized and put in a quart of good spirits, 
forms one of the best preparations for chronic rheuma- 
tism, and especially lumbago (or rheumatism in the 
back) that I have ever used : from one to two table- 
spoonfuls a dose, repeated two or three times a day. 

Dogwood — Gornus Florida. — The bark of this tree and 
especially the root bark, is an excellent tonic little if 
any surpassed by the peruvian bark. The dose of the 
bark recently dried, is from twenty to forty grains. 
This may be repeated several times to break up a chill. 
It may be taken in tincture, one to two ounces in a 
quart of good spirits — a wine-glassfull a dose ; take 
according to circumstance. 

Boneset — Eupatorium Perfol latum. — The leaves 
and blossoms of the boneset are an excellent tonic, and 
sudorific or sweating medicine. A tea, taken warm, 



164 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

aids the effect of an emetic ; taken in sufficient quantify 
will sometimes prevent the return of a chill. In typhoid 
fevers, the tea taken in half cupful doses several times 
a day is a good auxiliary remedy. It may be used in 
other cases of great debility. 

Queen-of-the-Meadow — Eupatorium Purjwriwm. 
Called also gravel-root. This weed grows in low rich 
land from five to seven or eight feet high, with a hollow 
stem, and the leaves come out round the stem in whirls 
having from three to five or six leaves in a whirl ; has a 
purple bloom which comes in the fall in a cluster on top. 
The root only is used ; the fibrous roots extend out two 
or three feet about the size of a broom straw. It is a 
good diuretic in cases of gravel, dropsy, or obstructed 
urine and affection of urinary organs, it acts well, some- 
times giving prompt relief; dose half a cupful, repeated 
several times in the day, prepared by putting an ounce 
the poowdered roots in a pint of boiling water. 

Witch-Hazel — Hamamelis Virginica. — Called also 
spotted alder, winter-bloom, etc. The witch-hazel grows 
in swamps and rich hamocks, from five to ten feet or 
more high ; in uplands usually small. It flowers in the 
winter, and the seeds ripen the next fall. The leaves 
resemble the hazel nut ; the seeds are black and smooth; 
the leaves are mostly used, make a good astringent ; the 
bark is less astringent. This is a valuable medicine in 
case of hemorrhages (or bleeding from the lungs or 
other parts of the body). For bleeding from the lungs 
make a strong tea and drink freely. It makes a good 



GOLDEN SEAL, ETC. 165 

wash for old ulcers and purulent sore eyes. It is also 
a good wash for the mouth in salivations. 

Golden B'EAh—Hydrastus Canadensis. — Called yel- 
low root, etc. The golden seal is a powerful bitter ton- 
ic ; it is a good remedy in cases of debility and loss of 
appetite ; dose, a tea-spoonful in hot water, and may be 
sweetened if preferable. It enters into many compounds. 
Take before eating. 

Pennyroyal — Hedeoma. — This little plant abounds 
in many places, and where it abounds it scents the air 
with its grateful odor. The pennyroyal is a pleasant 
stimulant aromatic. It promotes perspiration, and ex- 
cites the flow of the menstrual flux, or courses, when the 
system is predisposed to the effort. A large draught of 
warm tea is taken at bed-time, when used as an emmena- 
gogue in cases of recent suppression of the menses. 

Butternut or White Walnut — Juglans. — The inner 
bark of the root of white walnut is a mild cathartic or 
purge, resembling rhubarb in its operation ; it acts with- 
out debilitating the bowels to much extent, hence it is 
applicable in some cases of bowel complaints and cos- 
tiveness. It may be used in tea, tincture or extract, 
not in substance ; the extract is best. The dose of the 
extract is from five to ten grains, as a laxative, and from 
ten to twenty grains as a purge. 

The Tulip Tree or Common Poplar— Lirioden- 
dron. — This is one of the most beautiful and majestic trees 
of our forest. Its medicinal properties ought to be un- 



166 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

derstood by every farmer. The bark of the root is pre- 
ferable for medicine ; it is a stimulant tonic, and good 
to remove worms. In cases of general debility, or rheu- 
matism it is a good remedy. It is best taken in tincture 
or substance. Boiling it is supposed to destroy its vir- 
tues. For worms in children take from five to ten grains 
of the finely pulverized root-bark, and mix with syrup 
or honey ; take on an empty stomach two or three times 
a day, for three or four days. (The bark of this tree is 
good for puny horses, which they will frequently eat 
green from the limbs or small trees. The bark pounded 
and put in meal is the way to give it when dry. No 
man need to be afraid to give poplar bark to his horses.) 

Horehouxd — Marrubium. — This little plant grows 
about yards, roadsides, and fences. This is a good 
tonic taken internally, or applied externally in baths. 
It is an excellent remedy in colds and bad cough. It 
may be taken in tea or candy. An ounce of the herb 
to a pint of boiling water, and taken in wine glassful 
doses, is a good remedy in cold. It enters into other 
compounds. 

Bayberry — Myrica Cerifera. — Usually known as the 
swamp myrtle. This shrub grows from five to ten feet 
or more high. The upland or small myrtle possesses nearly 
the same properties. The medicinal properties of this 
shrub are extensive, but I am persuaded not as well un- 
derstood by the profession generally, as their merits 
demand. It is doubtless one of the best astringent ton- 
ics and stimulants now known. Therefore, in chronic 
affections, especially where the stomach and bowels par- 



THE WHITE POND LILY, ETC. 167 

ticipate to much extent, it is almost an invaluable 
remedy. Its powerful effects upon morbid secretions 
and its stimulant tonic properties, render its peculiar 
adaptation in chronic and low forms of disease manifest. 
It may be taken in substance or tea. It enters largely 
into other compounds. As awash for old sores, sore 
nipples of women, and other abrasions of the skin, it 
can hardly be surpassed. It makes an excellent poultice 
for risings, but especially for scrofulous and venereal 
swellings is its effects most prominently manifest. It is 
not saying too much in my estimation for this medicine 
to call it an alterative of high merit. 

The White Pond Lily — Nympha Odorata. — This 
vegetable grows in ponds or eddy water, with a large 
broad leaf resting on the surface of the water, and 
bears a large beautiful white flower. The root of the 
pond lily is a useful article of medicine. It is a mild as- 
tringent tonic, useful in a weakened condition of the 
bowels, and valuable as a poultice. It is said the fresh 
juice of the root, combined with lemon juice, is good to 
remove freckles from the skin. It may be used as an 
internal remedy by drinking a tea of it freely. It may 
be combined with other bitters to form an astringent 
tonic. 

London Poplar, Quaking Asp — Popidus Trepida. 
— The quaking asp is mostly grown for ornamental or 
shade trees. The leaves, from their peculiar construe-' 
tion, as well as the limbs of this tree, will manifest the 
slightest breeze. The bark of the root of this tree is 
one of the most valuable tonics, applicable in almost all 



i 



168 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. . 

cases where tonics are needed. In bowel complaint, ob- 
structed urine, etc., etc., it enters into the compound 
of spice bitters. 

Mandrake — May Apple — Podophyllum. — It has 
been said this is the only species of this genus.* It 
grows in rich low lands, has two large leaves deeply- 
gashed. It grows a foot and a half high, and has a 
blossom coming out at the fork of the leaves. The roots 
spread out horizontally, and frequently form thick and 
large beds or patches. The root of this plant is one of 
the best antibilious cathartics. (The leaves are said to 
be poisonous, and the fruit good for food when ripe.) 
It may be used in tincture, powder or extract. The dose 
of the powder is from ten to twenty grains ; dose of the 
extract from two to four grains. The root ought not 
to be used except in tincture until it has been thoroughly 
dried for eight or ten months. It is best to combine it 
with rhubarb equally, and one half red pepper, and 
take divided portions. Taken in this way it is applica- 
ble in all cases where a cathartic is needed. 

White Shumac — Rhus Glabra. — This species 
branches less than the other species of shumac ; grows 
best in old fields, edges of fields, and fence rows. It 
bears a large thick cluster of beautiful red berries, used 
for dyeing, etc. The root-bark, leaves, and dust of the 
berries, are all good astringents, and in their general ap- 
plication, perhaps stand next to the bayberry. In bowel 
complaints, dysentery, diarrhoea, etc., where there is a 

* Rafinesque says three species, P. Peltatum, P. Montanum, and 
P. Callicarpum. 



CUELED DOCK, NARROW DOCK. — SPICEWOOD. 169 

scanty flow of urine, their virtues are marked with bene- 
fit, especially the berries and root. If for no other, in 
these afflictions, this medicine ought to stand high with 
every administrator of ^the healing art. The other 
species of the shumac are good astringents, and may be 
used in poultices, etc., with great benefit, but the white 
is considered the best. 

Curled Dock, Narrow Dock — Rumex Crispus. — 
The docks are mostly cultivated and their properties 
similar, and are good in afflictions of the skin, as the 
itch, and other pustulous eruptions. Wash with a strong 
tea. The narrow-dock is alterative, and hence good to 
purify the blood in all these cases. The rhubarb or 
broadleaf dock is said to be a laxative. They may be 
used in tincture or tea, and an ounce of the green root 
to a pint of boiling water. 

Spicewood — Benzoin Odoriferum. — The spicewood 
grows in swamps and rich low lands. It is five or six 
feet high, sometimes more. The bush pay be easily 
known by its pleasant spicy smell and taste, which is 
manifest in the buds, berries and leaves. The limbs 
point out very small, and the blossoms appear before 
the leaves early in the spring ; earlier than almost those 
of any other shrub of a similar size. This shrub pos- 
sesses valuable sweating and tonic properties, gives tone 
to the stomach in disorders of the bowels, and is good 
in fevers as a sweating tea. I have found it to be pe- 
culiarly adapted to the disorders of children ; too much 
reliance can hardly be placed upon this medicine in 
cases which are called hives in children, or where the 
stomach does not digest the food properly, or where chil- 
8 



170 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

dren have to be raised by hand, and in a "word, in all cases 
of puny, weakly, or unhealthy children ; make a tea of the 
twigs or thrifty young bark, sweeten it, and put milk in 
it, as you would in any other tea, and use it freely or as 
food. For very young children who have to be raised by 
hand, put nearly half milk. I earnestly and candidly 
recommend this to the notice of mothers and nurses. 

Puccoon Root, Blood Root — Sanguinaria Canaden- 
sis. — This root grows mostly in rich land, has one or two 
leaves, roundish or somewhat heart shaped, and a white 
blossom. The root is reddish outside, and when pressed 
gives out a blood-red juice. When dry and pounded 
fine, this root is sometimes beneficially applied, dusted 
on old sores to rectify and take off morbid secretions. 
Steeped in vinegar, or used with narrow dock, it is good 
for ringworms or tetter, and other hepatic affections. 

Beth-root, Indian Balm, etc. — Trillium. — There are 
several species of the trillium, but it is said they possess 
nearly the sajue properties. They have a general re- 
semblance in growth and shape. The stem grows from 
four to ten inches in height, with three equally-divided 
leaves at the top. The blossom comes out where 
they part ; some red, some white and some purple, etc. 
The root resembles the unicorn root, being rough, wrink- 
led and short ; but more oily when bruised. The beth- 
root is an excellent tonic astringent, antiseptic, etc. 

It is useful in bleeding from the lungs, flooding, etc. 
It may be combined with witch-hazel for these purposes. 
A tea-spoonful of the pounded root either in tea or sub- 
stance is a usual dose, half the quantity of lobelia add- 
ed is sometimes more beneficial. The root and leaves 



SLIPPERY ELM. — LOBELIA. 171 

bruised are good in cases of poisoning from spider 
bites and snake bites. A poultice made of the roots, 
or leaves and roots, is an excellent application for 
carbuncles and other painful swellings. In all exces- 
sive female evacuations, as whites, flooding, etc., this 
article can hardly be surpassed. 

Slippery Elm — Ulmas. — Slippery elm grows in rich 
lowlands ; the tree sometimes grows to a foot in di- 
ameter ; the inner bark of this tree affords a medicine 
of as general application as any other known article, I 
presume. No person having a tree of it ought to suf- 
fer it to be killed if it could possibly be prevented. 
To preserve the tree alive, and yet to use it, do not 
cut off the limbs, nor skin the main trunk, but dig the 
roots ; be careful to cut no root nearer than three or 
four feet of the tree and dig it out to the last of the 
ends. For poultices, in bruises, wounds and swellings, 
with high inflammation, it can hardly be equalled. And 
is also excellent for internal uses. In no case, perhaps, 
but its internal use might be allowed, and in a large 
majority of cases with great benefit. In bowel com- 
plaints, pneumonia, typhoid fevers, etc., it is useful. The 
root bark is best ; when dry it should be kept close, 
preserved from the atmosphere. 

Lobelia inflata. —This article though one of the 
last mentioned, is one of the first in importance. Lo- 
belia has been brought into general notice by the cele- 
brated Dr. Samuel Thompson, who it seems must have 
been a natural philosopher in medicine or something 
like an inspired empirical practitioner. His many dis- 



172 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

coveries as to the quality and use of medicines, together 
"with the opposition he met in introducing these to public 
notice, has rendered his name familiar to almost every 
practitioner of medicine from the Lakes of Canada to 
the Gulf of Mexico, besides many beyond the seas ; and 
perhaps but few causes that have lent their aid to give 
his name such wide-spread fame over the world will be 
of more lasting honor to him than the discovery of the 
medicinal qualities of this little herb. One virtue alone 
of this plant I suppose has already sheathed the lancet, 
and prevented the shedding of more blood than the tyrant 
Nero caused to be shed in the city of Rome. I allude 
to its relaxing power. This power alone renders it pe- 
culiar and almost invaluable. It relaxes without en- 
feebling the vital principle ; hence it is one of the best 
family medicines for domestic practice ever used. This 
medicine is also entitled to stand at the head of the list 
of Emetics. It is a good sudorific (which is sweating) 
and nervine. The leaves, blossoms, and seeds possess the 
same property, but the seeds are the strongest. It may 
be used in powder, tincture, or tea, as boiling dissipates 
a part of its virtues. A large tea-spoonful of the tinc- 
ture or powdered leaves is an ordinary dose for grown 
persons ; a little less of the pounded seeds, which may 
be repeated, if necessary. It is usually more effectual, 
taken in less doses frequently repeated. Take in tea or 
warm water. The extracted virtue, called lobelina, is 
in use. From three to ten drops is usually sufficient to 
operate as an emetic, but I do not consider it as possess- 
ing any advantages over the medicine in it natural state, 
for family use. 
In the conclusion, I state from long experience and tol- 



LOBELIA. 173 

erably close observation, that this medicine, in its natural 
state, is devoid of any poisonous or destructive powers. 
I make these statements without the fear of candid con- 
tradiction from any person speaking from experimental 
knowledge. I have used the medicine in large and 
small doses, and have kept a patient under its influence 
constantly for a month at a time (in a case of constitu- 
tional syphilis) and not the least unpleasant symptom 
followed. In this case, the patient took from ten to 
twelve pills, of ordinary size, every twenty-four hours, 
and puked twice a week. 

It is true the use of this medicine, particularly when 
the seeds are used, may be carried to a state of relaxa- 
tion which may not be requisite, except in spasms or fits, 
and alarming to the beholder, yet no lasting evil has 
ever followed this state of relaxation that I have ever 
witnessed or read of, or otherwise heard of ; but still 
this state is not usually requisite, except in fits. In cases 
of severe spasms or fits it might be prudent to produce 
relaxation even to this point, for as soon as this state of 
relaxation takes place the fits will cease, and, so far as 
my knowledge extends, do not return. 

The plant grows mostly about the base of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains and Blue Bidge. It may be cultivated 
in this climate, (South-western Georgia,) but it requires 
moisture and shade to some extent. 



RECIPES. 

Formula for Anodyne Drops. — Simple tincture of 
nervine, four parts ; compound tincture of nervine, one 
part ; colic drops, one part ; diaphoretic drops, one part ; 
and essence of anise, one part. Mix together. Dose, 
from one to two tea-spoonfuls in tea or water. Sweeten 
if required. Good in cases of pain and nervous debility 
or restlessness. (Female weakness in particular.) 

To Prepare the Compounds as above stated. — For sim- 
ple tincture of nervine, four ounces of nerve powder (or 
the dried root of lady's slipper), put in a pint of alco- 
hol ; digest ten days, shaking once a day. Press well 
and strain, and bottle tight. Tea-spoonful a dose, taken 
in warm tea. Good in nervous weakness. 

For Compound Tincture of Nervine. — Nerve powder 
(or lady's slipper), five ounces; liquorice root, five 
ounces ; gum camphor, one drachm ; all pulverized ; oil 
of anise, one ounce ; digested in one and a-half pints al- 
cohol, ten days ; shaking once a day ; bottle tight. Dose, 
a tea-spoonful in tea. Good for pains in the chest or 
bowels and female debility. 

For Colic Drops.— Gloves, one ounce ; cinnamon, two 

(174) 



RECIPES. 1 75 

ounces ; good ginger, two ounces ; spice, two ounces ; 
oil lavender, three drachms ; solid articles pounded, and 
all put in one and a-half pints of alcohol ; digest ten 
days ; strain and bottle tight. A tea-spoonful a dose, 
taken in warm tea. Good for colic, etc. 

For Diaphoretic Drops. — Fine Myrrh, six ounces ; cay- 
enne, one and a-half ounces ; digested in one and a-half 
pints alcohol, ten days ; shake often ; strain and bottle. 
Dose, tea-spoonful in tea or water. Good to produce 
sweat, etc. 

To Prepare the Essence of Anise. — Put two ounces of 
the oil of anise to a pint of alcohol, and shake well. 

To Make Compound Lobelia Pills. — Equal parts of 
finely pulverized lobelia seeds and cayenne pepper ; 
moisten with honey or syrup, work well and roll in flour 
or slippery elm. Make in common sized pills. Dose, from 
one to five or six ; taken mostly after meals, or at bed- 
time. This is a simple preparation ; but beyond all 
doubt one of the best family medicines ever used ; none 
will fully know or understand its virtues till they try it. 

Tincture of Lobelia. — Pounded seeds of lobelia, three 
ounces, or of the leaves dried, four ounces to the quart 
of alcohol. Dose, from one to three fluid ounces for a 
grown person ; for children, from a half or less to a tea- 
spoonful. The tincture of lobelia is a good expectorant, 
taken in broken doses.barely to nauseate. 

Syrup of Lobelia. — Take the powdered leaves of lobe- 



176 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

lia, say two table-spoonfuls, and put four table-spoonfuls 
of warm water just below boiling heat, put in a tea-cup 
or other earthen vessel, place it as near the fire as will 
nearly or quite retain the heat, bat not raise it, let it 
stand for three or four hours, then press and strain, then 
dissolve a table spoonful of brown sugar in it when cool. 
From five to ten drops a dose for children. This is a 
good expectorant for children in croup, worms, etc. 

The Compound Preparation of Lobelia — Take an ounce 
and a half of pounded lobelia seeds and the same quan- 
tity of pounded red pepper, and a heaping tea-spoonful 
of nerve powder (lady's slipper), put in a pint of the 
tincture of myrrh, or No. 6. Dose, from one to two tea- 
spoonfuls. (It should be corked tight and kept from the 
light.) It must be taken in tea or water, and may 
be sweetened, if preferable. This is a valuable medicine 
in asthma, severe colics of every form, and a powerful 
antidote against poisons, as arsenic, strychnine, snake 
bites, etc. In snake bites apply it externally and give 
it internally. This is called the third preparation of 
lobelia. 

To Make good No. 6. — A pound of good gum myrrh, 
finely pounded (which ought to be done in cool weather, 
or a little at a time), and an ounce of cayenne pepper, put 
in a gallon of alcohol, or fourth-proof spirits ; digest in 
a warm place ten or fifteen days, shaking often. No. 6, 
designed to be used in bowel complaints, would be best 
prepared in good cogniac or Franch brandy. No. 6 is 
a good family medicine when prepared properly ; but 
much of that sold in shops is nearly worthless. No one 



RECIPES. 177 

can prepare good No. 6 without good materials. It is 
good in colics, first attacks of bowel complaints, dyspep- 
sia, etc. It is also good for wounds, bruises and fresh 
cuts. It ought to be kept in every family. Two ounces 
diluted in a quart of water will cure colics in horses, 
and the scours ; sometimes a second portion may be 
necessary, but rarely more than the second dose is ever 
needed. It is almost infallible. 

Composition. — To make good composition, take two 
pounds of bayberry, one pound good white ginger, one- 
eighth of a pound each of red pepper and cloves, all 
pounded fine and well mixed and sieved together. Dose, 
a tea-spoonful to a tea-cupful of boiling water. Steep 
twenty or thirty minutes, pour off and sweeten to suit 
the taste. G-ood in colds, dyspepsia, and other disorders 
of the stomach and bowels. It is as harmless as coffee. 
It is a good substitute for spirits for those who wish to 
break off from a habitual course of dram-drinking ; best 
taken at night when going to bed. To take composition 
and be out in the weather, take it in cold water in sub- 
stance. (Mix and drink all down). Other ingredients 
may be added according to circumstances. If it is de- 
sired to make it more sweating, add a tea-spoonful of 
butterfly-root ; if you wish to relax and produce expecto- 
ration, add half a tea-spoonful of lobelia, etc. 

Anti-bilious Pills. — Take two ounces rhubarb and man- 
drake (or may-apple) each, a half ounce each of cayenne 
pepper and podophyllin (which is the concentrated ex- 
tract of the mandrake) ; mix and make into common 
sized pills ; from three to six a dose. 



178 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Rhuharh, two parts, and cayenne pepper, one part, 
makes a good pill for habitual costiveness ; take enough 
to move the bowels slightly. Take at night. 

To make Spice Bitters. — Take equal parts of the root- 
bark of the common swamp poplar (Liriodendron) and 
the root-bark of aspian poplar, ginger, golden seal and 
bayberry, two pounds each ; cinnamon, one pound ; cloves, 
one pound ; cayenne and prickly-ash bark, each half a 
pound, all finely pulverized, and ten pounds of loaf sugar. 
Mix and sieve through a fine sieve. The dose is a tea- 
spoonful in either cold or tepid water. This is a good 
strengthening tonic ; good in cases of general debility. 

Ladies' Spice Bitters. — This is prepared by adding to 
the above formula, one pound each of unicorn root and 
finely pulverized myrrh. This is well adapted to cases 
of female debility. Taken as the above, and may if 
necessary be taken two or three times a day. 

Neutralizing Mixtures. — Take equal quantities of rhu- 
barb, salaeratus, and the pounded or dried leaves of pep- 
permint, each forty grains, all put in a half pint of boil- 
ing water ; steep until cool, then sweeten well with loaf 
sugar, and one or two table-spoonfuls of good brandy. 
Dose for a grown person, a table-spoonful ; for a child, a 
tea-spoonful. To be taken and repeated every twenty, 
thirty, or sixty minutes or less, as circumstances may 
demand. This is a highly valuable preparation for 
cholera-morbus, summer complaints of children, bowel 
complaints, etc. Its action is usually decisive and almost 
infallible. It is a good family medicine, but there must 



RECIPES. 179 

be more spirits added to prevent its fermenting or sour- 
ing after it is prepared, and then not so good when there 
is much fever. 

Cough Mixture. — Take of the root-bark of the ball- 
willow (a shrub that grows in the edges of water-courses, 
ponds and wet places, and has a ball that resembles the 
sweet gum balls ; the shrub grows five or six feet high, 
crooked, rough and ugly, and the bark, particularly of 
he root, very spongy and tough and slightly bitter), 
tand the dried leaves of horehound (if green, half as much 
more) and fat lightwood splinters, each an ounce ; sim- 
mer in three gills of water to a half pint ; when taken off, 
add sixty grains of lobelia ; and when cool, strain and 
add two table-spoonfuls of good No. 6, or anodyne drops, 
and sweeten well with honey. Dose, one or two tea- 
spoonfuls ; to be taken from one to three times a day. 
This is one of the best preparations for deep-seated or 
long-standing coughs I have ever used ; and in cases of 
not confirmed consumption, may be relied on with a good 
deal of certainty. 

Diuretic Decoction. — Take of the queen-of-the-meadow- 
root, milk-weed root, dwarf elder-bark, spear mint (and 
juniper berries, if convenient), bruise in a mortar and 
make a strong decoction. Dose, a tumblerful, to be 
taken several times through the day. This is good in 
gravel, and sometimes in dropsy, etc. 

Watermelon-seeds and Parsley-root made into a tea is 
a good diuretic. Drink freely in all cases when the 
urine does not flow as freely as usual and pain is pro- 
duced. 



180 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

Liniment. — Put two table-spoonfuls of pounded lobe- 
lia seeds in a three-ounce vial, fill it with alcohol, and 
put in the same quantity of red pepper ; digest ten days, 
squeeze and strain, then add half an ounce of spirits of 
tnrpentine and a tea-spoonful of the oil of sassafras ; ap- 
ply with a feather or rag. It is good for lumbago, pain 
in the back or rheumatism. 

Vermifuge. — Castor-oil, one pint; wormseed oil, two 
ounces ; spirits of turpentine, one ounce ; oil of anise, half 
an ounce ; mix and shake well before using. Dose, a 
tea-spoonful once a day for three days ; if it does not 
operate, take a dose of castor oil. 

In the body of this work, the author has recommended 
no medicine but such as he considers safe and innocent ; 
and it is believed as efficacious as any remedies now in 
use. Lobelia inflata has been pronounced narcotic by 
some doctors, and therefore unsafe but in very " minute 
doses." This opinion, I hesitate not to believe, has been 
formed from other sources than experimental knowledge. 
The podophyllin may sometimes, when taken in over 
doses, prove too drastic ; but used as directed, will rarely 
if ever have this effect. I will now give some cautions : 
It is best not to give cathartic medicines when the stom; 
ach and bowels are irritable and possessed of much acid ; 
first quiet and cleanse the stomach, and neutralize the 
acid, and then, if necessary, give mild cathartics. In no 
instance give irritating or drastic cathartics in pneumo- 
nias, pleurisies or other affections of the lungs in the 
early stages ; or any other diseased organ whose mucous 
surface far exceeds in proportion its muscular or fibrous 



RECIPES. 1 81 

and circulatory dimensions. Observation for a length 
of time has proved to me, that in pneumouia particularly, 
this course is wrong. For several years before I quit 
the practice of medicine, whenever I was called to a pa- 
tient laboring under that form of disease, and who had 
taken a full dose of strong medicine, as it is improperly 
called, I looked for a severe case, and rarely found it 
otherwise. For many years since I have dropped the 
practice as a profession, I have observed the same, and 
have been confirmed in the opinion as to the results of 
such a course. (I know it is not uncommon to charge 
the liver as in default in almost all cases of disease ; and 
mercury, in some of its preparations, is esteemed the best 
and perhaps the only potent agent for that organ ; and 
from this view, the practice of giving mercury as a ca- 
thartic has run to a too common and unjustifiable a 
practice. I do not believe the liver is subject to as many 
foibles as it is often charged with. I cannot see any 
reason why its failure should be at the root, or the root 
itself, of almost every disease. But admit it to be very 
subject to faults, yet this does not justify force to be ap- 
plied for every failure ; how many instances under daily 
observation has occurred where this organ would be 
pronounced at fault, yea, sometimes considerably so, and 
with the natural means of food, air, water, exercise and 
rest, it has been restored to a normal or healthy state ? 
Does not reason then tell us there is, or should be, many 
mild agents to occupy between the natural restorative 
power and this potent agent ? If there are, then this 
common notion of blue-massing and calomelizing of every 
form of disease, simply to aid the liver, ought to cease, 
at least to one-tenth or one-hundredth time of its use, 



182 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

especially as danger follows its use.) Although obser- 
vation goes very far to establish this truth, yet the mo- 
dus operandi, or the manner in which this evil is brought 
about, may not be so easily demonstrated. I will give 
my views, but not claiming for them infallibility : 

The mucous membranes are doubtless among the most 
important organs of the system (including the skin as the 
most external surface) to throw off disease ; this mem- 
brane is, in some sense, considered continuous, or a whole, 
though of different departments and textures, therefore 
its nervous relations are close and vital. When any 
organ therefore having a great extent of mucous surface 
is affected, it requires all the energies of its co-relative 
members to aid the mucous membrane of that organ to 
free it from oppression. To weaken these energies is to 
help fasten the disease. The lungs being a very impor- 
tant, delicate, slender, fibrous organ, with a large extent 
of mucous surface, whose office is to organize the blood, 
when they are affected their mucous membrane requires 
all the sympathy, energy, and uninterrupted aid of every 
member immediately connected with them ; every mucous 
membrane should act as aid, not a detriment. To excite 
the mucous membrane of the bowels by cathartics, would 
doubtless prove some loss to the nervous energies re- 
quired ; and more especially if there is much morbific or 
poisonous matter to be pushed through the bowels, which 
to a greater or less extent will be taken up and thrown 
into the circulatory apparatus, and, as a consequence, fall 
again upon the lungs, and prove oppressive. The lungs 
being already unable to perform their ordinary functions, 
this poisonous or morbific matter, not being thrown off 
in any ordinary channel, settles perhaps upon the brain, 



RECIPES. 183 

and thus deranges the whole nervous system. Sleep is 
driven away, restlessness prevails, and quietude, which 
is so essential, is destroyed. The nervous relations are 
so close and strong, with such exquisite sensibilities to 
excite those of a more healthy organ, they seem to act 
with an interposing influence to prevent aid going to a 
diseased organ ; hence, when two "or more important or- 
gans are diseased at the same time, the danger is in- 
creased in proportion to the vitality of the organs and 
the extent of the derangement. . 

Thus to excite the mucous surface of the stomach and 
bowels with irritating cathartics, seems to check the se- 
cretory and excretory powers of the lungs, so that a 
copious and easy expectoration can rarely be aroused by 
medicine ; neither is the function of perspiration aug- 
mented to a relief point, even if it be not depressed ; so 
these two most vital powers (expectoration and sweat- 
ing), so necessary for the relief of pneumonia, are not 
aided by cathartics, but rather weakened or depressed. 
And other organs similarly situated in like manner. I 
submit these views to the patient and practitioner, hop- 
ing if the philosophy of them are not so readily perceived, 
they may at least prompt to a more close and thorough 
observation of these facts. 



POISONS. 

When a person is bitten by a poisonous reptile, as a 
snake or spider, and a remedy is not at hand, let the 
limb, leg or arm, be corded sufficiently tight so as to stop 
the circulation of the blood as much as possible, until 
some remedy can be applied. Apply to the part bitten 
lobelia in any form it can be had ; if it be the leaves or 
seed,' let red pepper be combined with it, moistened in 
spirits or vinegar or water ; if that is not at hand, ap- 
ply spirits of turpentine, hartshorn, red pepper or mus- 
tard moistened ; beth-root is a good remedy ; let the 
patient take large doses of the compound preparation of 
lobelia, No. 6, or red pepper and whiskey, or any other 
spirits made strong with pepper. A table spoonful of 
the compound preparation of lobelia is a dose ; to be re- 
peated several 'times, thirty minutes apart; the No. 6 in 
larger doses and the spirits in gill doses ; the latter may 
be drank to the amount of a quart in twelve hours ; the 
quantity to be taken depends upon the severity of the 
poison and the prostration of the patient ; don't let the 
pulse sink if you can help it ; the use of No. 6, or spirits 
or ginger, pepper or composition tea, may be required 
for a day or two or longer. After symptoms are mani- 
fested for the better, slippery-elm and pepper, made into 
a poultice, may be kept to the place bitten ; if neither 



poisons. 185 

the lobelia, No. 6 or spirits are at hand, nor hartshorn, 
drink strong pepper tea in half-pint doses often repeated ; 
if no pepper is at hand, use ginger if it can be had ; use 
tonics as the patient recovers ; unicorn is a tonic very 
good in this case in any stage ; it is itself a pretty sure 
remedy in mild cases. 

Spidee-bites. — Most of spider-bites may be relieved 
by applying the compound preparation of lobelia to the 
place bitten, and often repeated. When that cannot be 
used, or it is not sufficient, use the best remedies at hand 
recommended under snake-bites. The black spider, with 
a red or white spot underneath, is the most poisonous 
kind known in middle or lower Georgia ; and when a 
person is bitten by one of these, strong remedies, early 
applied, is best ; make no delay to apply the best stimu- 
lants, both externally and internally. As the poison is 
not inserted so deep as that of a snake-bite, the pain is 
not so severe at first, nor is danger so apparent, but if 
not checked, the pain increases and danger becomes very 
apparent ; apply the compound preparation of lobelia to 
the bite, or hartshorn or spirits of turpentine ; drink 
composition tea with lobelia in it or spirits and pepper. 

Bee-stings. — Bee or wasp, yellow jacket or hornet 
sting is readily relieved by an application or two of the 
tincture of lobelia, No. 6 or the compound preparation 
of lobelia. When not at hand, use pepper and spirits 
made strong. 

Poisons from concentrated acids, such as nitric acid, 
sulphuric acid or muriatic acid. When any of these 



186 A GUIDE TO HEALTH. 

have been taken in portions calculated to destroy life, 
give magnesia, chalk or soap-suds, to neutralize the acid, 
and puke as soon as possible ; the puke is best of lobelia 
in large doses ; a tea-spoonful or more at a time, repeated 
until thorough puking is effected ; ipecac or mustard 
may be used, and if neither is at hand, drink large doses 
of warm water, and run a finger or feather down the 
throat to excite puking. 

When poisoned from caustic, potash or lime, or any 
powerful alkali, give vinegar or lemon juice, or the white 
of several eggs, beat up in warm water, may be taken, 
and puke immediately, as directed in poison from acids. 
The white of eggs is a good antidote for corrosive subli- 
mate ; let the stomach be filled. 

The treatment for arsenic is to puke as quickly as 
possible and as thoroughly as possible ; then use pure 
•stimulants to restore to health ; such as composition, 
No. 6, ginger tea, etc. Slippery-elm tea, taken freely, 
and pure tonics. 

Poison from any narcotics, such as opium, the night- 
shade, Jamestown weed or (Gimpson weed), etc., are to 
be relieved by puking, as directed above, and stimulants 
to overcome its effects ; give strong coffee freely, ginger 
tea, composition tea or No. 6. 



I 


NDEX. 




A. 




C. 




Air 


13 


Cold 


33 


Anger 


31 


Chills and Fever 


47 


Apoplexy . 


72 


Catarrh, bad Colds 


52 


Abortion . 


114 


Croup . . . . . 


55 


Anodyne Drops . 


174 


Colic, Wind, etc. 


60 


Anise, Essence of 


175 


Cholera Morbus . 


64 


Anti-bilious Pills 


177 


Costiveness 


65 


Antidotes to Poisons . 


184 


Craziness from Drink . 


84 






Cancer 


91 


B. 




Carbuncles . 


98 


Bilious Fever 


43 


Clap .... 


102 


Bilious Colic 


60 


Courses, or Menses 


106 


Bleeding from Lungs 
" Nose . 


88 
89 


Chlorosis 

Costiveness during Preg 


108 


" Wounds 


89 


nancy 


113 


" Stomach 


90 


Caution to Midwives . 


126 


Bruises, Flesh 


93 


Child-bed Fever . 


132 


" Stone 
Burns and Scalds 


92 
96 


" Treatment of 


133 


Cholera Infantum 


138 


Boils .... 


98 


Cleanliness in Children 


145 


Bone Felon 


. 99 


Chafing 


, 146 


Bee sting . . 1C 


2,185 


Cessation of the Menses 


152 


Busson 


. 104 


Corn Sweat 


155 


Bitter Root . 


158 


Camomile . 


158 


Burdock 


. 159 


Calamus 


. 161 


Butterfly Weed . 


. 160 


Cayenne Pepper . 


. 161 


Black Cohosh 


. 163 


Charcoal 


. 162 


Boneset 


. 163 


Cohosh 


. 163 


Butternut, White Walnut 


. 165 


Common Poplar 


. 165 


Bayberry 


. 166 


Compound Tine Nervine 


. 174 


Beth-root . 


. 170 


Coble Drops 


. 174 


Beginning of Sorrows 


. 106 


Compound Lobelia Pills 


. 175 



188 



Compound Prep. Lobelia 
Composition Powder . 
Cough Mixture . 

D. 

Drink . 

Debased Passions 
Disease, Fever 
Dysentery . 
Diarrhoea . 
Diabetes 
Dyspepsia . 
Despondency 
Dropsy 
Drowning . 
Diseases of Women 

" Early Infancy 

Difficult Voiding Urine 
Divisions of Labor 
Duty of Midwives 
Delivery of Afterbirth 
Dangerous Flooding . 
Diseases of Children . 
" Sore Mouth . 
Diseases of the Brain in 

Children . 
Dogwood . 
Diaphoretic Drops 
Diuretic Decoction 

E. 

Exercise 
Early Rising 
" Eating 
Excessive Urine 
Epilepsy— Fits 
Earache 
Excessive Menstruation 



176 

177 
179 



64 
69 
65 

75 
79 
81 
105 
105 
131 
120 
121 
125 
130 
136 
136 



F. 

Fits in Children . 

Food 

Fever 

Falling of the Palate— Uvula 

Faintings .... 

Flooding .... 

False Pains 

Forcible Delivery of the 
Afterbirth 

Fluor-albus — Whites . 

Falling of Womb— Prolap- 
sus Uteri 

Frozen Limbs 

G. 



General Exercise 

Green Sickness — Chlorosis 

Gravel 

Garlic . 

Green Stools 

Golden Seal 

Glandular Swellings . 

II. 



76 

114 
118 

128 
148 

150 
97 



Hysteria — Hysterics . 

Hyppo — Hypochondriasis 

Headache . 

Hernia — Busson 

Heartburn . 

Horehound . 
*® Hornet-stings 
24 
24 



73 Influences of Laws of Death 10 

87 Inflammatory Fever . . 41 

110 Incontinence of Urine . 70 



20 
108 

69 
161 
136 
165 



75 
76 
86 
104 
112 
166 
185 



189 



Insanity — Craziness . 


. 84 


Milk ChiUs . 


133 


Irritability of Womb . 


. 116 


Milk Leg . 


134 


Indian Turnip . 


. 159 


Moral Training of Children 


141 


Injections . 


. 155 


Materia Medica . 


157 






Milk Weed . 


160 


J. 




Myrrh. 


161 


Jealousy — Debased Passions 31 


Mandrake — May Apple 


168 


Jaundice 
Jerusalem Oak . 


. 71 
. 162 


W. 








Neuralgia . 


77 


Ii. 




Nervous 


103 






Nervine 


162 


Laws of Health . 


. 10 


Narrow-dock 


169 


Local Miasm 


. 14 


No. 6 . 


176 


Liquors, or Spirits 


. 18 


Neutralizing Mixture 


178 


Light and Heat . 


. 27 






Laws of Disease . 


. 30 


P. 




Labor in Birth . 


. 118 




Ladies' Slipper . 


. 162 


Poisons ... i 


3,184 


London Poplar . 


. 167 


Pleurisy 


54 


Lobelia Inflata . 


. 171 


Pneumonia 


52 


Ladies' Spice Bitters . 


. 178 


Piles — Emerods . 


67 


Liniment . 


. 180 


Paralysis— Palsy 


73 






Prolapsus of Bowels . 


- 103 


M. 




Painful Menstruation 


111 






Pregnancy . 


111 


Man the Creature of G 


ted . 8 


Piles in Pregnancy . 


112 


Man under Obligatio 


as to 


Parsley 


. 158 


God . 


9 


Prickly Ash 


159 


Melancholy — Debased 


Pas- 


Pepper, Cayenne 


161 


sions 


. 32 


Pond Lily . 


167 


Medicines . 


. 35 


Puccoon Root 


169 


" Proper 


. 36 


Palpitation of Heart . 


. 87 


Mumps 


. 59 


Pennyroyal 


. 165 


Mania-a-potu 


. 84 






Morbid Cravings 


. 113 


<*. 




Miscarriage 


. 114 






Medicines in Labor 


. 129 


Queen of the Meadow 


164 


Duration of Laboi 


. 130 


Quinsy . . _ . 


. 57 



190 



INDEX. 



Remarks on Raising Chil- 




dren 




140 


Reason 




10 


Rest .... 




25 


Rheumatism 




67 


Retention of Urine 




70 


Rickets in Children . 




147 


Rhubarb Pills . 




178 


Remarks on Medicine 


in 




Labor 




130 



Spice Bitters 
Scrofula 
Snake-bite . 



S. 

Sin the Cause of Disease and 

Death 
Sore Throat 
St. Vitus' Dance 
Sleep 

Sore Eyes . 
Sty, etc. 
Sprains 
Stone Bruise 
Scalds and Burns 
Sores — Ulcers 
Sick Stomach 
Swelled Feet 
Signs of Pregnancy 
Spasms in Labor 
Swelled Breast . 
Sore Nipples 
Sore Mouth — Thrash 
Spasms from Teething 
Steam Bath 
Spice Wood 
Slippery-elm 
Simple Tincture Nervine 
Syrup of Lobelia 



91 
92 
96 
101 
112 
112 
117 
130 
135 
134 
136 
139 
153 
169 
171 
174 
175 



T. 



The Influences of the Laws 

of Life and of Death 
Typhoid Fever . 
Twins. 
Thrush 
Teething . 

" General Order of 
Tincture Lobelia 
Toothache . 



Ulcers 
Unicorn 



IT. 



V. 



Venereal Diseases 
Virginia Snake-root . 
Vermifuge . 

W. 

Worms 

Wounds on Head — Flesh 

Wounds or Cuts in Joints 

White Swelling . 

Whites — Lucorrhcea . 

Wormwood 

Witch-hazel 

White Pond Lily 

White Shumac . 

Words of Caution 



178 
80 
184 



10 
48 
131 
136 
138 
139 
175 



101 
157 



102 
159 
180 



100 
148 
160 
164 
167 
168 
180 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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